More Christmas updates

Due to the unforeseen circumstances of fate (i.e. Rosalyn dropped our camera right after Dan's graduation), we've had to rely on other people's cameras for this week's postings--which means that we only have pictures for stuff that happened at my parents house. Anyone interested in pictures from our Cedar City trip will have to see Dan's parents' blog.

That caveat having been made, we proceed with our recounting of the week's activities. (And incidentally, we apologize to our few faithful readers for the length of our most recent postings. In our defense, a lot has been going on!).

Since we already covered Monday in a previous posting, we'll start with Christmas morning. This was actually a lot of fun, since Andrew was much more cognizant this year of what was going on. He loved (and still does love) his new kitchen and spent the next half hour playing with it (which for him is a considerable amount of time). Really, opening stockings Christmas morning meant watching Andrew find out what was in his stocking. Due to some sort of miscommunication with Santa (or other Christmas powers that be), I was the default fill-in for Santa for those of us who were sleeping at my parents' house--which means that everyone but me got something in their stockings. At this rate, a lump of coal might have been better--that would at least have been something.



Andrew also got to open a whole stack of books from his grandma, who, like his mother, seems to think that books (like food and other necessities) don't really count as presents and therefore aren't included in the tally of total presents (my mom had set herself a two toy limit per grandkid--this loophole neatly let her give her grandkids a lot more than two presents each!).


About 10:30/11 a.m. Jared and Mitcee and Jeni and Samuel showed up with their respective broods and the real present opening got underway. The kids, not surprisingly, all loved it--although for some reason they were also all on occasion more interested in someone else's present than their own. Joshua and Jacob got little fishing games that Andrew and Emi were fascinated by, and Andrew got a little puzzle with a variety of locks on it that everyone wanted to try.








Apparently, I wasn't taking the pictures at this point. Here's a lovely one of me, getting in the Christmas spirit.


Of course, not everything was fun and games. Here's Emi, giving her classic glower. (That kid has to have the cutest angry faces of anyone I know). I'm not quite sure what she's so upset about, since otherwise she's rather fashionably decked out.





After presents were opened and brunch was consumed, Dan, Andrew and I hit the road on our way to Cedar City (we were hoping to beat the storm that was forecast for Wednesday). Perhaps it was because we left only a day and a half after returning from Pennsylvania, or maybe it was our general befuddlement, but I have never forgotten so many important items (purse, diaper bag, some of the Christmas presents) at the same time before. We got down to Cedar about 4 p.m., and a thrilled Andrew discovered yet another set of cousins waiting to play with him (not to mention a Bubby willing and able to indulge his every whim for tea parties). Dinner, which was a marvelous spread of twice-baked potatoes, apple salad, roast meat, rolls, etc.--was somewhat delayed because the new meat cooking technique Bubby and Poppy had discovered took an unexpectedly long time. Meanwhile, Trisha's sister Nelly, her husband, two of their kids (Jodi and Jana) and their respective spouses (Kyle and Phil) and children showed up. This meant that there were 14 adults and 8 children running around the house. It was pretty chaotic, but fun. The Lee families all brought with them some kind of dessert, so many of us opted for dessert before dinner was ready. (We ended up feeding Andrew some leftover macaroni and cheese--not that he complained--and putting him to bed before the meat finally finished cooking).

Because of the delayed meal and company, we didn't get around to opening the rest of the family presents until later the next afternoon, after Trisha returned from work and the kids woke up from their naps. Everyone enjoyed their new hoard of toys--some new cooking utensils, clothes, books, etc. for Dan and I, and a much coveted racing toy for Andrew (Jake immediately took charge of the racing proceedings and he, Andrew, and Kate raced toys for a good half hour while Lydia danced excitedly every time the cars crossed the finish line). I think that had to have been one of the favorite toys, and I'm not entirely convinced that Jake knew it wasn't his . . . The only downside to the proceedings was that, because of the aforementioned forgotten presents, Jake didn't have anything to open, and he was pretty bummed about that (as only a newly minted eight-year-old can be). But Matt and Laurie saved the day by presenting him later that evening with a belated birthday present--a cubscout neckerchief with a "real gold" (according to Jake) band to put around it. We had yummy homemade pizza that evening (and ate leftovers from that pizza for the rest of the trip, there was so much).

On Thursday Sarah and her brood went back to St. George to prepare for Jake's baptism and get ready to move (they're packing up the truck for a move to Salt Lake tomorrow). That meant the house was pretty quiet, without all of Sarah's kids running around. It also meant that we spent a lot more time entertaining Andrew than we had when he had cousins to do that for him. We had homemade corn chowder and cornbread (two of my favorites!) for dinner that night, and then Dan went with Matt, Laurie, and Big K (Laurie's mother) to see the new National Treasure movie. I stayed home out of a nagging sense of guilt (I have a chapter I'm supposed to submit to an editor by the end of the month and I haven't done much in the last two weeks). I actually did get some work done--and Dan tells me the movie was pretty lame, so I'm glad I didn't go.

Friday was a big day for the Sarah and Aaron Wells household. The baptism, originally scheduled for 10 a.m., was moved back until 1 p.m. because of a funeral that was being held at the stakecenter. So, we met at the Pizza Factory in St. George for lunch before the baptism. Because of plans for a Mexican run after the baptism, most of the Eves opted just for salads, but our little family wasn't nearly that reserved. Dan and I both had the salad bar and an entree--and Andrew ate part of my salad, part of my meal, and half of an adult-sized serving (granted, a lunch portion size serving) of spaghetti with meat sauce. The boy did us proud. Jake and his dad had to leave lunch early to get ready for the baptism. The parts of the service that I heard were very nice--Trisha and Matt were the speakers for the day. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear as much as I would have liked--Andrew was pretty restless (it was his nap time) and pretty distracting. After the baptism itself was over (Andrew was pretty impressed with seeing Jake go "under the water"), I took Andrew, Kate, and Lydia into the church nursery and let them play. At least this way Sarah was able to focus on her son's baptism! We took family pictures at the St. George temple after the service was over, and then returned to Sarah's house to recoup. We were hoping that Andrew would take a much-needed nap, but no such luck. Then, we thought maybe he'd fall asleep on the hour ride between St. George and Cedar City, so we headed back up to the Eves' home (Robert and Trisha were to follow later with Matt and Laurie and a promised burrito for Dan). Of course, Andrew didn't fall asleep then either (although his mom did)--but babbled nonstop instead the entire time. This meant that he went to bed early, and was out early enough that Dan could enjoy his burrito in peace and that we could all play some cards (hand and foot--Poppy and I won!) before indulting in a Dairy Queen run. You'd think that with all the food we'd been consuming all week, no one would be interested in more food, let alone more sugar, but the lure of the DQ was just too strong. (Well, Trisha and Laurie abstained).

Saturday morning we spent hanging out with Dan's parents and packing, until about 11, when Matt came over to help move couches. (Sarah wanted the couches out of the basement, so they had to be moved up to the garage for preparation for loading on the truck on Monday). This was quite the process, as it entailed removing the light fixture in the laundry room, the railing from the downstairs, and the railing around the stairs in the garage. Dan also managed to come away with a pretty spectacularly jammed finger (well, it looked nasty at the time, but it's healing well, apparently). He thinks that this will let him out of my family's planned bowling tournament tomorrow, but I'm not so sure (convenient excuse!). Saturday afternoon we drove back to Provo in two separate cars, since we were also taking Aaron's car up north for the Wells family. This meant that I had to listen to numerous repetitions of: "Where's Daddy? Daddy's in the car in front of us. Daddy's in Uncle Beanie's car." (It turns out it was a good thing we returned yesterday, as we've had pretty nasty snow flurries on and off today).

Saturday night my mom had a big family gathering for all of her family in the vicinity. Tera and Lee came with all of Tera's kids and spouses (Tyrel and Mary, Kevin and Heather, Nolan, Traven). Dahnelle couldn't make it, but her daughter Erin came, and my mom's youngest sister Jeannie also came. In the grand Burton family tradition, everyone brought food, which meant that we could have fed three times the number of people there. They traded off funny stories about some of my mom's brothers (like Dell riding on the back of his motorcycle waving a machete over his head as a teenager--it's a wonder that Lan and Dell ever survived to adulthood!), and I think everyone had a pretty good time. Dan even managed to pretend he was being social by staying in the room and talking to my Dad or my sister-in-law (and otherwise avoiding my mom's family. Which may have been a wise move. They are a little crazy--if fun). I always forget how tall my aunt Tera's boys are. Both Kevin and Traven have to duck under the doorway lintel when they come in--Nolan, the third son, is the smallest and he's still a few inches over six feet. (Kevin's 6'10 and we think Traven must be at least 6'8 or 9). They make Dan look positively puny!

Erin, Tyrel, and Mary (they were all determinedly not looking at the camera).


Tera.

Tera's husband Lee was his usual charming self.

Nolan.

Traven and Jeannie.

Heather and Kevin.

Today has been pretty quiet--we kept Andrew home from church because of a cold (and because he woke up just before 5 a.m. and refused to go back to sleep), and tried to keep him quarantined to the basement until we determined it was safe to go up (Justin's girls are staying upstairs and they'd both thrown up yesterday. Apparently all was clear today). Jeni and her family came over to dinner tonight, and after dinner, Lia had her hands full as all five of the mobile grandkids present decided to help Julia put together her princess puzzle.

Quick Christmas update

We wanted to share a brief update of our Christmas morning (before we forget the details of our conversation). Andrew's big present from "Santa" was a little kitchen set (as I think we've mentioned). When he came upstairs this morning, he went straight for the set and started investigating. The following conversation ensued: "Andrew, what is that?" "A kitchen!" "Whose kitchen is that?" "Andrew's!" "Where did it come from?" "The closet." (So much for Santa Claus). He then made us all laugh by looking for his "hamburber." Ah, the joys of Christmas with a toddler!

epochs

The eight or so days since our last post have certainly been eventful--we've seen not one but three milestones for our little family: Rosalyn (me) defended her dissertation, Dan graduated with his PhD in chemistry, and Andrew celebrated his second birthday (the first one he's really been cognizant of). In between these major events, we've managed to pack a lot of smaller ones. To recap:

Monday, I flew out to Pennsylvania. This was mostly uneventful, except for the last leg of the flight (from Cincinnati to State College). Two-thirds of the way through the flight, the captain came on the PA system and announced that we were having some kind of engine trouble and were being rerouted to Columbus. There, they deplaned all of us. For twenty minutes (this was between 9:30 and 10 pm) we waited in the mostly empty lobby to find out our fate: we knew they had another plane for us, we just weren't sure we had a crew. Finally, to my great relief, they boarded us on the other plane and we set off, arriving a mere two hours after our scheduled arrival time (and five minutes after the car rental place closed; luckily, my generous host, Lauren Christensen, was willing to come pick me up even though it was nearly midnight). I have to admit that frantic thoughts of renting a car and driving to PA from Ohio flew through my head while I waited in Columbus--I should know better than to schedule late flights the day before an important event.

Tuesday for me, was D-day. At 11:00 a.m. I met in a small room with my four committee members, and they went around the circle asking me questions about the dissertation and making suggestions for improving it. Most of the suggestions were geared towards turning the dissertation document into a potential book, so the whole experience wound up being much less alarming and painful than expected--I escaped mostly unscathed. Oh, and I passed. Now, only some editing revisions stand between me and my own graduation.

I ran a couple of errands that afternoon and returned to the Christensens for a much needed nap (for some reason, I hadn't slept well the previous two nights! :)). That evening, I met my advisor, her husband (my former boss at the Graduate Writing Center), and a couple of friends from my dissertation writing group. We had dinner at a downtown restaurant, the Tavern. The food was quite good, and the deserts were even better. It was a nice closure to what could have been a rather long day.

On Wednesday, I had lunch twice. And no, I wasn't extraordinarily hungry, just a poor planner! I met up with a couple of women from my old ward at 11:30--and then met up with a few more friends from school at 1:00. (This was the only time that I could meet the latter group). Not surprisingly, I took most of the second meal home with me in a box. It was wonderful to have a chance to catch up with these people. I couldn't help but reflect, while I was in State College, how much I had liked living there, and how much I liked some of the people we got to know there. That afternoon, as a celebration of my successful defense, I went on a mini-shopping spree at the local mall (strangely luxurious to go shopping without a grasping toddler along--I actually had the leisure to try clothes on!), and then met my friend Wendy for dinner and our traditional Target run. (Despite carrying my camera with me faithfully for two days, I inevitably failed to take pictures at all of my outings, so you'll just have to use your imagination if you require visual illustrations).

Dan's parents and sister arrived in town late Wednesday night, and we made plans to meet up early Thursday morning. I also called home and got my daily report on how Dan and Andrew were doing--and found out that Andrew had been more of a handful than usual that day. My mom took him to campus with her during her office hours and, after emptying the diaper bag completely and ransacking assorted drawers, he started playing with the phone. Well, this proved to be a big mistake: on BYU campus, the number for the campus police is 2-2222. (You can probably see where this is going). Not surprisingly, the campus police showed up a short while later and took my mom's name, checked her ID, etc. (Apparently Andrew had made more than one call in the span of a few minutes). Andrew, unfortunately, seemed remarkably unrepentant about the incident. Reportedly, on the way home in the car, he sat in the backseat and said, "Andrew called the police!" and then giggled. Almost two and already a delinquent!

On Thursday, I was late arriving at my date with the Eves. This was okay, however, since the time difference had led them to sleep much later than planned, so I found them eating breakfast in the dining area of the hotel. Sarah and Trisha are big fans of Beverly Lewis's Amish romance novels, so the plan for the day was to head down to Lancaster, PA, and indulge ourselves with views of Amish country. Before we got there, however, we took a brief detour to Hershey and toured the chocolate factory there.



We went on a short ride that took us through the chocolate-making process (a ride replete with singing cows). In the past, on the same ride, I remember an almost overwhelming smell of chocolate. The smell wasn't as strong this time, but it was still an appealing aroma.



At the end of the ride, we saw actually chocolates being made. Here, you can see newly made Hershey's kisses being wrapped in foil.


After buying the requisite supply of Hershey chocolates, we proceeded on our way. Since we were a little unsure of the fastest route into Lancaster, we decided to stop at a gas station and ask. I asked an older gentleman who was buying a coffee in the store, and he explained what he thought the best route would be. Then, he offered to show us how to get there. Not only did he make good on his word, but he paid for the drinks that Robert was waiting to buy (water for Trisha and I, cokes for Robert and Sarah). It was nice to see this little glimmer of the Christmas spirit in a strange part of the country.

In due course, we reached our destination. Trisha and Sarah were "in alt" (to borrow a phrase from the 19th century)--in fact, Trisha at one point got so excited in pointing out an Amish buggy to Sarah, that she forgot to give Robert the directions he was asking for. Mostly, we drove around, stopped and investigated some local stores, and enjoyed the scenery. We enjoyed an enormous lunch at Miller's Smorgasbord and generally spent a pleasant day in Amish country. We even got back to State College early enough (well, around 8:30), that I actually got to see Dan for about fifteen minutes (he arrived late that afternoon and our friend, and new host, Steve Baylis picked him up). Dan crashed for the evening around 9:30 (you have to remember that this was 7:30 in Provo, so he was clearly exhausted, poor boy).

On Friday, not quite sated by their Amish experiences of the day before, we drove down to Belleville, a little community about 30 minutes away from State College, located in Big Valley (through which Dan and I drove almost every Sunday for six months, on our way home from Huntingdon). We went to a local country store (probably one of the last of its breed) run by Mennonites (and frequented by Amish folk), and then to a store that seemed run by the Amish themselves, if the lack of electricity in the store was any indication. Sarah was on a quest to find a cloth Amish doll--finally, after much searching, we succeeded in finding one (although it wasn't quite what she had had in mind). We rounded off our morning with a lunch at Peachey's--what passed for fine dining in the area. The food was decent--aside from the fried chicken, which was quite good (Dan and I were introduced to Peachey's by a friend of ours who claimed they had the best fried chicken in central PA). Of course, I don't have any pictures of this, either, but anyone who wants to see more pictures can check out Robert and Trisha's blog.

We decided to take things a little quieter that afternoon. So, while the seniors of the Eves clan rested back at the hotel, Dan and I ran some errands in State College (like closing out bank accounts), and then went to visit some good friends (and former neighbors) of ours, the Higleys, who had a little girl, Eleanor, the previous Friday. She was a sweet little girl--slept the whole time--and we enjoyed catching up a little bit with some old friends.



That night, we had dinner at Kelly's steakhouse (actually a steak and seafood joint), another local color spot (known particularly for the large bull on top of the building). The others opted for salad and sandwiches, but I had a wonderful macadamia nut encrusted chicken.

Saturday, of course, was Dan's big day. However, since graduation didn't start until 4 p.m., we whiled away the morning by driving out to the Woolrich store, headquarters of (of course) the Woolrich company. Although we didn't end up buying anything, Trisha, in particular, enjoyed the opportunity to wander among the wool and plaid products and finger everything. We came back to State College, had lunch at the Green Bowl (a local Mongolian barbeque type place), before retiring back to the hotel to array ourselves appropriately for the pomp and circumstance that is graduation.

And Penn State certainly did their best to indulge us in the full pomposity of the occasion. Faculty members filed in to fill the stage complete in their full academic regalia (which is pretty impressive--and sometimes quite colorful). Actually, the program was pretty decent--no one spoke outrageously long, and the speakers all did their best to stay focused on the graduates. The main speaker was a Penn State professor who was part of the committee (including Al Gore) that recently did the report on global warming, for which they won the Nobel prize. Not surprisingly, he spoke about global warming, but I was impressed by the fact that, although he could easily have turned the speech into a doom and gloom kind of occasion, he focused instead on the fact that change is a part of human existence and we need to be prepared for it. Maybe I just warmed to his talk (not necessarily the topic) because he concluded with Emerson's famous quote on success: "To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." (Although apparently the Emerson attribution is not entirely certain).

None of my pictures of graduation turned out very well--particularly since my flash seemed to illuminate the backs of the people in front of me rather than the speakers. As you can see, we were only a couple of rows behind the graduates, which was nice because we could actually see Dan--below, you can see Penn State president Graham Spanier addressing the PhD graduates (Dan is the one in the middle of the back, with a gold tassel over his ear and a white collar).



Here is Dan receiving his academic hood from Nicholas Winograd (better known to Dan and his fellow grad students as "Disco Nick" because of his propensity to wear heavy gold jewelry), a chemistry professor.



This picture, which you can hardly see, is of Dan as he first appeared on stage to receive his diploma. The next is of him walking across the stage.





This, I think, is my favorite picture of Dan at graduation because the expression is so classically Dan's--this was taken as he returned to his seat after receiving his diploma.






Saturday evening, we celebrated graduation at the Hanscom's house, with lots of food (yummy pizza) and several games of cards with some close friends from State College. Dan and I were able to see Bishop and Celie Hanscom again the next morning, because they kindly offered to let us hang out at their house for a couple hours between the time we had to turn in our rental car and the time for our flight. We've really enjoyed getting to know them over the last several years--Gerry Hanscom was the bishop of our local ward (then still a branch) when we first got out there--and they've both done their darnedest to serve as foster parents for us and a bunch of other lonely college students in State College.

There's not much else to say about Sunday--we flew back, it was pretty uneventful. I did, however, run into an old friend and roommate from BYU in the Cincinnati airport. I was thrilled to see her, because we'd emailed about getting together over the break while she's in Salt Lake, but then realized that our respective plans would probably preclude that. (It was, however, a little awkward at first because I haven't seen her in a couple of years and so naturally she looked a little different, and because the context was not a typical one I was rather embarassed that I might be approaching a stranger who only looked like Laura--of course, as soon as she saw me, that fear was put to rest, because she clearly recognized me too!).

Today, as Christmas Eve, was also pretty eventful. It was, of course, Andrew's second birthday as well, but his birthday only got celebrated incidentally (we're waiting to celebrate for real until after the Christmas excitement dies down). We did sing "Happy Birthday" to him, though, which he liked so much that he insisted I sing to him again when I put him down for his nap.

Jeni orchestrated a Bethlehem brunch for this morning, so all the siblings who were nearby (everyone but Justin, who's in St. George with Lia's family) and their respective families gathered for a lunch that was a rough (very rough) approximation of foods that might have been eaten during Christ's time. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they're foods that are currently eaten in the Middle East/Mediterranean area--fish, saffron rice, pitas, cucumber yogurt dip, pomegranates, pomellos (sp? sort of like grapefruit), etc. The food wasn't a huge hit with the kids--Joshua insisted on having a hot dog instead--but the grownups seemed to like it pretty well (although we had enough food to feed three times that number of people). Following the meal, we acted out the nativity story. It was a little chaotic, since many of our lead characters were under the age of four, but it was pretty fun, too. Neither Mary nor the wisemen got any of their lines right (in fact, two of the three wisemen--Andrew and Joshua--refused to say anything at all), and the littlest wiseman (Andrew) absconded with Baby Jesus (who was one of "his" dolls) in the middle of the enactment, but at least the kids got the gist of the story. I think. (Andrew also tried to take back all of the "gifts" the wisemen had given Mary and Joseph, so maybe he didn't really get what was going on).




Below, Emi as Mary; her father was Joseph; and her mom, Jeni, was the donkey.




The narrator, Mary, and the wisemen.


Below, the abduction of Baby Jesus.


The wisemen leave Herod to present their gifts to the Christ child. (You can see the shepherd, Mitcee, in the background, with one of her sheep).



Below, the death of King Herod. (Who knew my dad had such dramatic capability?)


A sleeping sheep.


After the nativity enactment, we finished off our brunch with a cake and candles. The idea was that everyone would say one thing they knew about Jesus as they put their candle in the cake, and the light from the candles was to remind us that Christ was the light of the world. Again, this worked pretty well except for our small child, who was more interested in acquiring as many candles as possible than contributing to the proceedings. After the excitement of cake and icecream had worn off, we put our tired boy down for a nap.

Tonight, we finished off his birthday by letting him open two presents that I'd promised him he could have on his birthday--two sets of big boy underpants (Marvel comic heroes--"Spi-erman"--and Thomas the Train). You can tell how excited he was about this--he insisted on putting them on at once. At one point, I think he had four pairs of underwear somewhere over his nether regions; in most of the pictures he's wearing at least two pairs. Andrew cracks us up sometimes--we sure miss him when he's gone!





We hope those of you reading the blog in the near future have a happy Holiday season, though perhaps with a little less travelling involved than what we've described here!

Beethoven's birthday

In honor of Beethoven's birthday (well, at least, the day he celebrated his birthday, according to Wikipedia), we begin with a few lines from "Ode to Joy" ("An die Freude"), the lyrics to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (although technically the words were written by Friedrich Schiller). So, if any of you find yourselves at loose ends this evening, you can do what our Sunday school teacher recommended today and sit back and enjoy a little Beethoven.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium!
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, Dein Heiligtum.
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt,[1]
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,[1]
Wo Dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Chor.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, überm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen!

[English translation]
Joy, thou source of light immortal,
Daughter of Elysium!
Touched with fire, to the portal,
Of thy radiant shrine, we come.
Your sweet magic, frees all others,
Held in custom's rigid rings,
All men on earth become brothers,
In the haven of your wings.

Chorus
Be embraced, you millions!
This kiss for the entire world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
Must a loving Father reside.

(Incidentally, one of the most amazing things I saw in Austria when I was there several years ago was Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, a wall mural in the lower level of the Secession building in Vienna, which visually depicts the themes of "Ode to Joy").

Anyway, that's enough ruminating about things that are only tangentially related to us. Tonight's post will likely be short--we have no pictures, and I need to start packing for PA as soon as Andrew goes to bed. So, without further ado, we present the weekly highlights.

On Monday Andrew and I drove up to Salt Lake City for a play date with Stephanie and Gaby Sturgeon, Andrew's best friend from State College days. The two actually played together quite charmingly, and then we took the pair of them to IKEA, where we fed them lunch. Andrew ate not only all of his swedish meatballs and french fries, but he ate quite a bit of my pasta as well, and talked about that meal for the next several days. ("Ate it all gone!" "Gaby ate macky cheese" "freh fries"). On Tuesday, we had another play date, this time with my friend Karin and her son Ezra--Karin is expecting her second baby in a few weeks, so I figured this might be our last chance to go visit for a little while. Andrew and Ezra played okay together--they're both only children and oldest children and Ezra tended to get threatened when Andrew played with his toys and insisted that Andrew couldn't have any of them. But they finally worked that out. At least Karin and I had a nice chat. :) We tried to hurry back from our play date so that we could pick Dan up on campus (he had a doctor's appointment that afternoon), and of course, because we were in a hurry, we hit stop and go traffic on the freeway and were late getting to Dan. Unfortunately, the results of Dan's doctor's appointment were such that he spent that afternoon and significant portions of the next day in bed. I think it threw Andrew's schedule off to have Daddy home on a weekday, but he enjoyed it for all that. (Incidentally, Dan is NOT a good invalid--he gets sick so seldom that he doesn't really know what to do with himself when he gets sick).

By Thursday, Andrew was pining for sight of his cousins, so we went over to Jeni's house to play with Emi while Jacob was at joy school. And of course, that wasn't enough, so we went back over again on Friday to play. It's good for Andrew to have so much exposure to other kids--for one thing, it helps him learn how to share! And if Friday wasn't enough, we went over to Jeni's house yet again on Saturday, this time with Dan in tow, to meet up with Jeni, her kids, and Jared and his kids. (Unfortunately, Samuel had to work so he missed this invasion of in-laws). Jared and Dan played games on the wii with Jacob and Joshua, while Jeni and I entertained the littler kids by making rice crispy treats and setting up the big slide in the basement. Andrew was particularly excited to see his cousin Brielle again--after carefully holding her for a minute on the couch, he announced to me that he wanted a baby at his house, and that he wanted his Daddy to have the baby. I didn't have the heart to tell him that probably wouldn't happen!

Such has been our week. This next week promises to be busy--I'm flying out tomorrow (yikes!) to get ready for my defense, and Dan and his parents and sister will join me later in the week. The mother in me is already feeling guilty for leaving Andrew for a week, even though I know that he'll be more than amply cared for (read: spoiled) by his grandparents. At any rate, wish me luck!

potty training?

(Warning: for those squeamish readers out there, the contents of this blog have not been censored and may contain material unsuitable for sensitive souls. But that bit isn't until the end--the first part should be okay.)

Tonight, as I was putting Andrew down to bed, he very nearly made me laugh out loud with his charming rendition of "I am a child of God." As I was singing to him, he chimed in, matching me nearly word-for-word (although some of his words weren't quite intelligible, due to the pacifier in his mouth), in an endearing little monotone that he clearly thinks counts for singing. It was pretty funny to hear.

This week has been a quiet one, which I suppose is a good thing considering the last couple of weeks. We did have a little bit of a mishap on Monday: I decided that Andrew's big Christmas present this year is going to be a little kitchen set--they had one on sale at Walmart, and it was actually in stock when we went to the store. So, like the dedicated mom that I am, I immediately put the box in our cart (more accurately *on* our cart, since it wouldn't really fit in it. That probably should have been my first clue that this wasn't a good idea). Since this was the first thing we picked up in the store, it made fitting grocery items into the cart a little precarious, but we managed. It wasn't until we got out to the car that I realized we had a problem: there was no way that box was going to fit through any of the doors, or in the trunk. So I had to call my mom and have her come pick up the box in her roomier Prius before we could go home. Andrew, in the meantime, was surprisingly placid about the whole thing. (Probably because he was busy stuffing himself with Teddy Grahams).



Nothing much happened in the middle of the week, so we won't waste your time by pretending something did and trying to describe it. (I suppose it might be worth noting that for the first three days of this week, Andrew took a 3+ hour nap, which was little short of miraculous given his track record). On Thursday, I finally caved into Andrew's relentless pleas that he "go to Jacob's house" (because of his illness and his cousins' subsequent illnesses, he hadn't seen them for over a week): we had lunch with Jeni, Emi, and Enoch (Jacob was at Joy School), before picking Jacob up and heading to the store for a brief outing.

On Friday, the gathering of grandchildren continued: my mom was sitting for my brother Jared's kids during the morning, and Jeni brought her kids over to play with them. Which meant that we had six of the eight grandchildren collected more or less in one room (although not usually all at the same time, unfortunately). It was pretty chaotic, but they had a lot of fun. At one point the three oldest boys, Jacob (4), Joshua (3), and Andrew (almost 2) sat around the kitchen table eating crackers and giggling hysterically (for a full five minutes) about something that probably would only make sense to a little boy (I think it had something to do with Andrew trying to eat the wax off some cheese, but I'm not sure. I'm not even sure Joshua and Andrew knew what was so funny). Anyway, it was fun to see them enjoying each other so much. That night, Jeni returned again with her brood while she and Samuel went to the temple. The kids picked at their dinner but then had a thrilling time jumping around the living room like maniacs and playing their own version of "ring around the rosie" (which mostly just involved falling down). Not surprisingly, after this strenuous day, Andrew was pretty compliant about going to bed.



We didn't go anywhere on Saturday, for the simple expedient that it snowed all day--possibly even more snow than last weekend. We entertained Andrew by letting him "help" prepare the chicken pot pie that served as dinner, and then I took him outside to "help" me shovel the walk. After abandoning a real snow shovel as too big, Andrew discovered that a dustpan would work just as well (although he spent most of his time digging a hole in a snow pile and dumping snow over spots I'd already cleared). He finally abandoned that too, in favor of my mom's garden diggers. (I think he lost one, too, but my mom consoled me that we would find it when the snow melts). It was nice to stay home for a change and just hang out with the family.

Jeni and Samuel brought their family over again this evening, for an early celebration of Samuel's birthday. My parents made sukiyaki (a kind of Japanese hot pot dish) which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, although Emi, at least, clearly preferred the cake. (Jeni called her a little Marie Antoinette, because of her insistence that we "eat cake").

And for the big news of the week (reflected in the title of our blog), Andrew seems to have decided that it's time to start potty-training. For the last several days, he's been pestering us all multiple times daily that he "needs to go potty." Mostly, this involves him sitting on the potty while nothing happens. But things slowly seem to be changing--in the last week, he has managed to successfully use the toilet five times--three times today! We're pleased that he seems to have taken the initiative in this, although I have to admit I rather dread the whole process (and I'm sure the "I need to go potty" thing will pall considerably when I have to deal with it twenty times a day). Dan took a picture of one of his successful attempts, but we thought we'd at least spare our readers' sensibilities that sight.

A few of my favorite things

Not to sound like an annoyingly doting mom or anything, but it seems to me like each new stage of Andrew's growth brings with it new delights. I wanted to record a few of them here--partly for the delectation of our hard-core readers, but mostly for my own sake, so that in a few months when Andrew has outgrown this stage I can still remember what he was doing! So, in no particular order, here are a few of my favorite things about Andrew.


*His persistent confusion of the preposition "up" and "down"--he consistently demands, "pick a down!" when he wants to be picked up.
*The funny little skip dance that he has taken to doing recently instead of walking. I think he thinks he's jumping.
*How he says "pockulator" for "popsicle."
*How he mimics almost everything we say, albeit not always accurately.
*The way he announces, when we go to get him out of his crib and ask where his binkie is, "I frowed it." (Yes, he still has his binkie, but, although he doesn't know this, only for a few more weeks).
*The way he announces, when he's doing something he's not supposed to, "Oh Andrew!" (I suppose that must be what I sound like when I find out what he's doing). I have to admit, this is really only cute in retrospect--it's not always cute at the time!
*The way he sometimes tells us what to do: sit there, come here, go away Daddy! (Again, this one is selectively funny and will probably become less so as he gets older!)
*The way he says, "Want hot chokate" (when he really wants some of the extra dark chocolate grandma keeps in the cupboard).
*The way, every time his Grandpa looks at him with a certain mock threatening look, Andrew pulls up his shirt to expose his belly for the implied tickling.
*The sad little Belle doll that Andrew has taken to carrying everywhere, and whose current rat nest of hair would make any Bob Marley wannabe jealous.

in sickness and in health

This week has been a pretty quiet one for us, particularly as we were housebound most of the latter part of the week (but I'm getting ahead of my story). On Monday, we accompanied Jeni and her kids to a couple of stores while they ran errands, before heading back to Jeni's house for lunch. It's a wonderful thing to live close enough to familly that Andrew can be good friends with so many of his cousins.

Tuesday I can't remember--except that Dan and I made his cousin Jason's recipe for homemade spaghetti--but were apparently a little heavy on the tomato flavor. Oh, and Andrew took a really long nap--almost 3 hours! (Long enough that I had to check after 2.5 hours to make sure he was really still breathing).

On Wednesday, Jeni brought Emi over while she, Samuel, and Jacob had dentist appointments. It was pretty funny to watch Andrew and Emi run around together, as they're so close in age and size that they make pretty good playmates (and actually get along better when it's just the two of them than when Jacob is around to tell them both what to do. The perils of older siblings, I guess). My mom had made a Tinkerbell costume for Emi, but since Emi is often leery of new things, she wasn't initially sure she wanted it. So, I offered to put Andrew in it. Andrew, always pliable, was more than happy to wear the dress (although I doubt Tinkerbell has often been seen wearing a sword). And of course, once she saw Andrew in *her* dress, Emi was all over wearing it herself.





I have to admit, despite being a reasonably fond parent, that Emi looks much better in this getup than Andrew does. (He's just a little stocky to pull off the fairy look).

Unfortunately, our week went down from there. Andrew woke us up in the wee hours of Thursday morning with a wracking cough; a trip to the doctor that afternoon (after Andrew spent most of the late morning and early afternoon feverish and alarmingly lethargic--for him--I've never known Andrew to voluntarily spend so much time just cuddling by my side) confirmed that Andrew had the croup. This meant that he was up every hour or so for the first five hours of the night, followed by a 3 1/2 hour stint (of course, from 12 to 3:30), where he simply wouldn't sleep at all . . . I'm clearly still new at this parenting thing, because watching Andrew struggle to breathe was almost more than I could handle. It's hard to feel so helpless. Dan moved our rocking chair out to the back patio, and we bundled Andrew up frequently and took him outside until his breathing cleared. Luckily, Thursday was our worst night, and he has slowly but steadily improved since then, although he had to stay home from stake conference today because his cough persists.

Yesterday we had our first good snowfall of the season, and, since Andrew seemed to be feeling a little better (and was starting to show the effects of cabin fever), I took him outside while I cleared off the car and shovelled off the driveway. Of course, Andrew insisted on helping me. This went okay (although he quickly lost his gloves), until Andrew tried to take one of the spare snow shovels onto the lawn (I tried to tell him that the grass didn't need to be shovelled off, but apparently I wasn't convincing). By this time, my mom had come out to help me, and, seeing Andrew on the grass, she asked if he had boots on. I started to assure her that he did, but, looking at Andrew just then, I realized that his boots had gotten stuck in the snow and he had just walked out of them! He was pretty startled (and scared) to discover how quickly his feet got wet and cold. Needless to say, we went inside then and let my mom finish the driveway (not much was left then anyway).







Despite the miseries of the last few days, our week did at least end on a good note. Andrew is feeling better, and we had a wonderful, moving stake conference this weekend. The meetings were presided over by Elder Richard G. Scott, who gave a couple of inspiring talks, and the stake presidency was reorganized, which is always an emotional experience it seems. What little was said about the calling of the new stake president (David Terry Warner, C. Terry Warner's son--Justin might be interested in this, since he knows the family) made it very clear that he was called by God. (Apprently President Warner had been impressed that he would receive the calling some time ago; one of the departing presidency members related that, when they told the high council that they were going to be released, President Warner's face went white!). And of course, tonight we got to listen to the First Presidency's Christmas message, so, in all, a nice close to a somewhat stressful week.

There's no place like home . . .

. . . for the holidays. This week, not surprisingly, has been pretty full of family events and holiday celebrations. The early part of the week was mostly spent getting ready for Thanksgiving (and going to Jacob's house, which is one of Andrew's new hobbies). Wednesday afternoon, we headed down to Cedar City for the long holiday weekend.

The weather, for the most part, was beautiful and clear--although it was a bit cold in Cedar City. We woke up Thursday morning to snow, which Dan and Robert shoveled off with (or in spite of) Andrew's help. Andrew was mostly just thrilled to be going outside, which was one of his most frequent (and frequently denied) requests all week.



Later that morning, we drove down to Saint George, to help Sarah in her Thanksgiving preparations, prior to our group trip to Sarah's inlaws home for our Thanksgiving feast. On the way, of course, we had to stop at a local Mexican dive (Dan would know the name, but he's not here for me to ask--a sneak peak at Bubby and Poppy's blog tells me it was Alvaro's), to get enough food to sustain us until the Big Meal. Sarah had preparations pretty well underway (despite the numerous children underfoot), so all Dan and I really had to do was child patrol (which was easier said than done, especially since Andrew and Lydia, in typical toddler fashion, were really only interested in the specific toy the other one had).

We were a little late heading over to the Wells' home for dinner--not because we weren't ready on time, but because we were waiting for Sarah's husband, Aaron, to get off his shift at the hospital. Dinner, in the grand tradition of Thanksgivings all over the world, was quite good and quite chaotic. Sarah's in-laws had three of their children there, with attendant children, in addition to Robert, Trisha, and our little brood. To add to the confusion, Sarah's mother-in-law had not apparently reckoned on the toddlers when she set the tables (which were beautifully laid), so there was an additional moment of disorientation while we sorted out where to put everyone. (I suppose she must have thought that the little kids could sit on their parents laps, but there was no way this would work with Andrew, who not only weighs too much, but would never sit still that long without restraints). Dan and I ended up at the kid's table with Andrew. I never knew that the conversation of a group of eight year olds could be so, well, odd. It was a fascinating ethnographic experience to follow the topics that seem to obsess them (Hannah Montana, scary movies, the longest book they've ever read . . .).

I'm not entirely sure what happened in the aftermath of dinner (though I'm told that Aaron ate a heroic amount of food, and I'm sure the others weren't far behind), since we took Andrew back to Sarah's house for a late nap, where he was shortly joined by his cousin Lydia, and I ended up on baby duty while everyone else went back for more food. I didn't mind so much--I did some reading, surfed the web a bit, and got to enjoy a little alone time (a scarce, but necessary, commodity for an introvert at a family gathering!)--at least, not until Lydia woke up screaming and wouldn't let me touch her, followed within a matter of minutes by a crying Andrew. Lydia finally let me pick her up, but then I had to hold her and Andrew, both sobbing heart-brokenly, until Sarah could come rescue me. I have seldom been so happy to see another person--and my relief was nothing compared to Lydia's! That evening, after Andrew went to bed, Dan and I played Crowns with Robert and Trisha, and Trisha, of course, won handily.

Friday was another big day--at least for the Rogers' family. Trisha's family regularly holds a family get-together called "Dutch Christmas" (so-called because Trisha's grandmother hailed from Holland). This year, Dutch Christmas was at a park in Ivins, just outside St. George, which was a perfect site, as it provided ample room for the kids to run around. Andrew, of course, divided his time and attention between the tallest slide on the playground and the sandbox (we'll spare you a description of how much sand we found in his diaper).


He also discovered a latent talent for soccer, as he gleefully ran around the field saying, "kick, kick" and knocking the ball around.



Of course, the real highlight of Dutch Christmas (besides the food, of course) is the gift exchange. Traditionally, every gift comes with a poem that gives clues to the contents of the gift as well as the giver's identity. Since Trisha gave Dan and I the assignment of writing her poem, this momentarily stumped the audience, who figured out what the gift was and who it was from, but couldn't quite figure out the poem, as it wasn't Trisha's style or Robert's. I had written a particularly flowery piece to describe the "tea-party-in-a-box" that Trisha put together, with a brief nod to T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (specifically, a nod to the oft-repeated refrain, "in the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo"), and was irrationally pleased when Dan's cousin and her father both asked, "who here knows T.S. Eliot?"



At any rate, the party seemed to be a success--at least, until a cold north wind broke up the festivities (well, they were relocated to the nearby home of one of the family members). We were among the first to leave, a mere four hours or so after the party started. On our way home, we stopped at yet another Mexican restaurant (this time, Albertos), where Dan and I enjoyed burritos of various flavors, and Andrew had his first experience of carne asada fries (french fries covered with meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and some kind of salsa)--actually, I think most of the fries were eaten by his parents and his cousin Lydia. Andrew was too tired by then to enjoy much. Andrew had a wonderful time running around with hordes of cousins and second cousins, but as a result of all this spent energy and no nap, he was asleep before we hit the freeway shortly after five p.m., and only woke up for a little while when we reached home before zonking out for the night. We played cards again that night, a pretty competitive game of hand and foot--competitive, that is, until Robert and Trisha completely shut us out in the last hand, thereby effectively trouncing us.

Trisha organized a family tea party for Saturday morning. (And by "organized," I mean that she gave Dan and I the assignment of making the scones that constituted most of the repast!). I woke up to the smell of bacon frying and realized I was being remiss in my duties--I went upstairs to help Dan make the scones, one batch savory (bacon and cheddar scones), and one sweet (sour cream scones with a lemon glaze). The scones, especially the sweet ones, were a big hit. We also had some nice peach tea in Trisha's beautiful china tea set--even Andrew is slowly learning how to treat Trisha's tea cups gently. After breakfast, we took Andrew over to Discovery park--which is an absolutely amazing park for little kids, with a big fortress, lots of slides and swings, and creatively themed decorations. Andrew had fun sliding on the slides (in the snow, which meant he was soaked by the time we were done), but as the morning was brisk and cold (and Andrew was due for lunch and a nap), we didn't stay as long as Andrew would have liked.

Saturday afternoon, Sarah brought her kids up to Cedar City. While the men stayed home to hang up Christmas lights, we took Jake, Katie, and Andrew to the Cedar City Children's Christmas festival. (Lydia stayed home to nap, and I don't think any of the husbands were particularly disappointed at being left home). I wasn't sure quite what to expect from a small town festival, but I was pleasantly surprised by the intricate arrangements of Christmas trees that were set up. As you can see from the pictures below, they had trees for almost any child's (and some not-so-young children's) fancy.

For Trisha, of course, there was a miniature tea party, courtesy of Alice in Wonderland.



For all the little girls, there was an enchanted collection, with trees devoted to each of the Disney princesses (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel--there was even a Tinkerbell tree).



And of course, Jake's favorite part was the pirate cove.

I also had to include a few pictures for some of Andrew's absent cousins--the care bear, tree, of course, is for Emi.

The festival also had an elaborate "North Pole" set-up, with stuffed bears, penguins, wolves, etc. arranged artistically in a room that could only be entered via an igloo. Plastic snow-flakes and icicles dangled from the ceiling, testimony not only to someone's creativity, but to hundreds of volunteer hours putting everything together. Of course, since we arrived at the festival during the local Christmas parade, Santa was "out to lunch," but the kids still enjoyed looking at the decorations. Andrew, in particular, surprised me by pointing to one of the reindeer (they had all 9: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph) and announcing delightedly: "caribou!" That he knew this word is no doubt testimony to the fact that he's watched the "Baby Noah" video (of the Baby Einstein group) way too many times--but it does also suggest that *some* learning happens when watching those videos, contrary to recent published reports.




Downstairs, they also had a few activities for children and some booths selling Christmas crafts. While Sarah and Trisha browsed, Andrew and Katie decorated sugar cookies. (For Andrew, this consisted of dumping as much of every kind of sprinkle as possible on his cookie. And, for a first in his cookie eating career, he actually ate the entire cookie, instead of just licking off the frosting. Of course, he also made a huge mess in the process . . .)



We came back to find that the boys had been successful in stringing their Christmas lights, and celebrated our mutually successful excursions by going to Bruno's, a local place that serves primarily Italian type food. While the grown-ups had some very tasty pizza, the kids worked on spaghetti and meatballs. Andrew split a children's portion with Katie--and if he could have licked his plate, I think he would have. He not only polished off all of his pasta, but he also finished off Lydia's leftovers. We returned home happy and well-fed, and while we attempted to play cards (hand and foot again) after the little kids had gone to bed, our efforts were aborted by Lydia's stubborn refusal to follow the plan and actually go to sleep. After Lydia had screamed in her crib for twenty or thirty minutes, Sarah gave up and packed her kids up for home. After they left, Dan and I played a couple rounds of pincochle with his parents (they won both times--I'm noticing that our track record for games wasn't very good this weekend!) before calling it quits.

We had a leisurely morning this morning--I even got to sleep until almost eight o' clock! (Andrew, of course, was up at quarter to six, but since he promptly went upstairs to have a "tea party" with his Bubby, I wasn't much fazed by that). We went to sacrament meeting with Robert and Trisha (where Andrew transformed into his evil twin Andy and had to be taken out in the hall for almost half of the meeting) before heading back up to Provo. It's been a nice weekend--nice to be "home" in Cedar City with Dan's family, and nice to be home again facing the prospects of our own beds.