family, family, and . . . more family

This week's post promises to be particularly picture-heavy, so those of our readers who tire of our prose can content themselves with lots of images of, of course, Andrew. It's been a good week. Although the weather here in Provo turned cold the end of the week (it snowed several inches last night and this morning), the beginning of the week was beautiful. And since we escaped the arctic breezes for a milder Cedar City this weekend (more on that later), we've been able to enjoy lots of sunshine this week.

Monday night brought us, inevitably, to family home evening. And although I thoughtfully went out and purchased a primary and family home evening manual to aid us in putting together more organized events, Monday evening still found me scrambling at the last minute to put something together. We reviewed Easter one more time, but Andrew was noticeably lacking in enthusiasm (perhaps he could sense my lack of preparedness?). At any rate, the only thing Andrew really seemed interested in was dessert--we went to Dairy Queen and got ice cream cones and then, since the weather really was beautiful, we sat out on the front steps and watched while Andrew finished off his cone. When Andrew was nearing the end, Dan offered to throw the rest of Andrew's cone in the bushes for the quail to eat, but Andrew would have none of that. Quite proudly, he polished off the rest of the cone and then told us that now the quail couldn't have any of his ice cream because he ate it all gone. (And he has proceeded to remind us of that fact several times during the week).

On Tuesday, at loose ends for a means of entertainment, I did what I always do in such cases: I called my sister. She and her brood were on their way to Sam's Club, so we agreed to meet them there and then we retreated to Jeni's house where we fed the kids and let them play in the back yard on the swingset. I think everyone (parents and kids alike) were glad to be out in the sunshine; Enoch particularly seemed to enjoy the swing.

This week seems to have been the week for family. On Monday afternoon, my uncle Michael and aunt Judy arrived and stayed until Wednesday. Michael was one of the invited academic speakers at some sort of horror convention in Salt Lake (for those of you who aren't familiar with Michael's incredibly wide-ranging interests, he has written extensively on topics as diverse as John Milton and Stephen King). Incidentally, my dad went up to Salt Lake on Saturday to help Michael with something related to the convention and his report was that the convention attracted some pretty strange types. At any rate, it was nice to have them here (not least because they spent time with my grandmother and gave my mom a brief respite).

Wednesday evening, yet another family member dropped by. This time, it was my cousin Ross, who has sort of honorary family member status in our family because he lived with us for six months or so while I was in high school (much, I think, to my mom's chagrin. Not that she doesn't love Ross--she does--but he used to make her want to pull her hair out on a regular basis.) Ross brought with him his wife Becky and their five kids (who have increasingly unusual names that I don't quite trust myself to get straight). Surprisingly, the evening wasn't too chaotic--the kids had a good time playing together and dinner (pizza) seemed to be a general hit. It was nice to see Ross and Becky again, if only for a couple of hours. (And it probably seemed especially nice for me since Dan kindly took charge of Andrew so I could chat with them). After they left (and Andrew was safely in bed), my mom and I went to a fabric store and picked out some fabric for quilts we're making in enrichment next month--I'm particularly pleased with the color combinations I found, and excited to see how the quilt turns out (which reminds me, I never did post pictures of Andrew's quilt. I'll have to do that sometime). My mom and Bubby's respective passions for sewing and quilting must be rubbing off or something.

On Thursday, Jeni and I took the kids to the Bean Museum, which seemed to be crawling with children (in part, I suppose, because we arrived while their reptile show was in progress). The kids always like walking around and looking at the animals, and the museum is small enough that it doesn't strain their attention spans too much. Afterwards we came back to our place for lunch and let the kids run wild for a little bit before wrestling them into bed (Andrew) or the car, prior to bed (all Jeni's kids). Thursday night, yet another set of family members came visiting: my dad's sister Valerie with her youngest daughter, Rachel, and Rachel's husband Ben.

Friday afternoon we made a brief sojourn southward to Cedar City. We'd told Andrew the night before that we were going to Bubby's house, and he was nearly beside himself. All morning long he kept asking me when we were going to Bubby's house, and I had to keep telling him we weren't going until after his nap. He was so excited about going that he insisted on dragging his Nemo backpack (which held his most precious possessions, Dolly and Puggy, which he had carefully packed for the trip) with us to a visiting teaching appointment. When the end of naptime finally arrived, I went into his "room" to find him sitting up in bed, beaming at me. He announced eagerly, "Now I can go to Bubby's house!" and scrambled out of bed. In fact, he was rather put out because we had to stop on campus to get Dan before we could go to Bubby's house--he was under the impression that we were going straight there. He didn't seem impressed when I reminded him that Bubby was Dan's mom, and didn't he think his daddy would like to see his own mommy? (No, Andrew said). At any rate, we made it safely to Cedar City, where one of Andrew's first orders of business was to play "tea party" with Bubby.

Saturday was a gorgeous day in Cedar City, sunny, with not too much wind. We spent part of the morning helping Bubby and Poppy fix up the lawn: Andrew collected pine cones from the grass and piled them in a designated location next to the house while the rest of us raked pine needles up from the grass (and I took a few pictures).

After our morning exertions, we took Andrew to Discovery Park (a wonderful park built primarily on community donations and fund raisers that was also designed in part by the local children). As you can probably tell from the pictures, Andrew enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Following our stint at the park, we went to Bruno's, a local family favorite. The food is surprisingly good, considering that Bruno's is located in the corner of a convenience store. Bubby split an adult portion of spaghetti and meatballs with Andrew, who, true to form, ate almost everything on his plate. The rest of us enjoyed calzones.

Unfortunately, our stay wasn't long--we left early Sunday morning to get back to Provo in time for church. My morning was just a little traumatic: I went to get in the shower at about 6 this morning and, as I was trying to shut the shower door (they have a sliding glass door in the basement), the door shattered. Needless to say, it shocked me a bit and succeeded in waking me up completely. Luckily (from one point of view), I wasn't cut by the glass, which was everywhere. Following this dramatic beginning, the rest of the day passed pretty innocuously.

And so we leave you for yet another week (or at least, until we next post).

Skipping

We promised Bubby and Poppy to post a video of Andrew skipping, so here it is:

Greater love hath no one . . .

You might think that our title for today's blog is simply a misquote of a famous biblical passage, but no. (Although it's definitely a nod in that direction). Rather, we're quoting one of Andrew's newest discoveries and passions, The Jungle Book. For those of you who haven't seen it recently, we're actually quoting Bagheera, who, thinking that Baloo has died saving Mowgli from Shere Khan, tells Mowgli that "Greater love hath no one than this than he who lays down his life for his friend." This quote seems singularly apropos, not only because it references a much greater sacrifice that we celebrated today, but also because we've heard it about umpteen million times this week. (I exagerate, but only by a bit.) Andrew's watched the movie to completion at least four times this week, sometimes staggered over several days. And he's discovered that Grandma has an illustrated book version (differing in some essentials from the movie--no Beatle-esque vultures with indecision complexes, for one) that we've also been reading on a daily basis. I'm not quite sure what I think of this accomplishment--part of me rejoices that Andrew's finally developing a longer attention span, but another part of me feels guilty for encouraging so much TV watching . . . and still another part of me wonders what kind of message I'm letting my innocent child consume in a movie that ends with a little girl singing at the water's edge, "Father's hunting in the forest, mother's cooking in the home . . ." and goes on to hope for the day when she will be married and "cooking in the home," while she sends her own daughter to fetch the water (interesting commentary on appropriate gender roles!).

This week has been pretty eventful. On Monday, drawn thither by promises of a sale on Fisher-Price toys, my mom and I met Jeni at Toys 'R Us with all of the kids. Andrew had fun playing with the Thomas the Train model and trying to ride some of the assembled bikes before falling apart on me--he did a little better when we were back at grandma's house and were able to actually put some food in him.

On Tuesday, we drove up to Salt Lake to visit Sarah and her girls. After letting the kids roam around the house for a while, we decided to take the gang to--where else? Toys 'R Us (I *must* be some kind of glutton for punishment)--before hitting Wendy's for lunch. Our outing met with mixed success. Andrew refused to be bound to a cart after seeing Katie roam free, which meant that I was forever chasing after him (my mom reminds me that I need to take his "monkey backpack"--i.e., leash--with me at all times). He also, in keeping with his tendency to need to use the bathroom facilities at the most inconvenient times, filled his drawers and then fought tooth and nail to keep me from getting him into the bathroom to rectify the situation. I was about ready to strangle him by the time Sarah checked out. On the other hand, Sarah found some good deals on toys for Lydia, who has a birthday at the end of the month, so that was a good thing. And we ran into Liza Eves (Dan's cousin Jason's wife) with her new baby, Theodore Roosevelt Davis Eves, on our way out of the store. Andrew was a little disappointed that Ted's big brother Jasper wasn't around, but he soon got over it. We, with Liza, propelled our little troop into a nearby Wendy's and settled the kids down with food. I had the foresight to strap Andrew into a booster chair, so lunch didn't involve nearly as much running around as our previous trip had. Sarah, Liza and I had a nice chat while the kids chowed down--and I gained some new insights into the craziness that is the Eves extended family (but details will be withheld here to protect the innocent).

I can't remember Wednesday at all, which means either it was utterly unmemorable or it was so bad that I've blocked it out completely. Take your pick.

On Thursday, after running some errands, Andrew and I checked out a park in the neighborhood that we've not been to before. Andrew really liked the "cool" park--it had everything a toddler could want: slides (but not too many or too high), some jungle gym bars that he could actually climb (with a little supervision), swings of various sizes, and, best of all, a duck pond. He was pretty excited about terrorizing the ducks until I convinced him that they would rather lie basking in the sunlight than fleeing at his approach. We've actually been to at least three different parks this week (although I don't remember which days we went where), with the result that now, nearly everytime we go outside, Andrew thinks we need to go to a park . . .

Andrew woke up earlier than usual from his nap that afternoon, so I was able to make good my promise to my mom to go visit my grandmother in the care center. (My mom tries to visit her several times a week, but since my grandmother--my dad's mom--is virtually deaf and refuses to wear ear-plugs, besides being a somewhat demanding personality, this task is sometimes a big burden for her, so I offered to help a bit.) Thursday also happened to be my grandmother's birthday, and my mom wasn't going to be able to make it that day because of work and other conflicts, so it seemed all the more important that *someone* go visit her. I took Andrew with me, both because I couldn't very well leave him home alone, and because I thought he might be willing to sing "happy birthday." No dice there. Andrew wasn't very excited by our outing, repeating over and over as we approached the care center, "I don't want to see great-grandma. I don't want to see great-grandma." But go see her we did. Andrew was pretty soon reconciled to the visit, however, by the offer of a cupcake (someone had brought my grandmother several for her birthday, and she couldn't eat them). He sat down on the floor with several paper towels under him and the cupcake and proceeded to eat the top off the cupcake. At least this kept him occupied while I talked with my grandmother and did a few tasks for her. And my grandmother found the process highly entertaining.

On Friday, Jeni and I decided to get our kids in the mood for Spring Solstice/Easter (take your pick) by painting some hard-boiled eggs. A bad experience last year had taught Jeni that her kids didn't have enough patience for dyeing the eggs, so we thought we'd try finger-paint instead. Emi wasn't a huge fan of the finger paints--too messy--but she was pretty content once my mom gave her some q-tips to use instead of her fingers.

Andrew, on the other hand, had no problem sticking his fingers in the paint. The problem, instead, was convincing him that the paints were not to be eaten (his first instinct was to stick his fingers in his mouth--luckily, since they were Crayola paints, they were non-toxic). He still managed to get nearly as much paint on himself as he did on his eggs.

Jacob was not nearly as interested in the proceedings as his younger compatriots--he declared himself "done" after one egg and left to find better amusements elsewhere (namely, upstairs with grandma's newly expanded train set--thanks to Monday's toy run). Jeni and I took advantage of my mom's generosity to let grandma go upstairs and play trains with the older kids while we sat downstairs with Enoch, dyed the rest of the eggs, and talked.

Friday afternoon I picked Dan up early from work and he and I attended a session in the Provo Temple. It's been entirely too long since we were able to go, so it was a nice change of pace and seemed like a fitting introduction to our Easter weekend. We got home in time to put Andrew down to bed and then I went to Costco with my mom to fulfill my obligation to bring a fruit tray to Saturday's ward breakfast.

Saturday was probably our busiest day. At nine o' clock we headed down the street with Andrew. (Don't be misled by the bright sunshine in the photos--it was *cold* outside yesterday morning). Due to a double-booking at the church, our ward had opted to have their Easter brunch at the end of our cul-de-sac, with an ensuing egg hunt in the front lawns of all the houses on the street. This was just a little problematic as we headed for breakfast, past all these enticing colored eggs, since Andrew didn't quite understand why he couldn't pick the eggs up yet, especially since he had his special Elmo basket (bought at a post-Halloween sale) for that very purpose. Andrew and Dan had both eaten breakfast prior to our arrival, so neither one ate much (although Dan highly recommended the danishes--after, of course, the breakfast was over and we were back at our house). Andrew spent most of the time skipping excitedly up and down the street in anticipation of the big egg hunt. Finally, the appointed time arrived and we were off (luckily, they let all the kids under four go first, so Andrew at least had a fighting chance). He had a bad habit of opening his eggs as soon as he picked them up, with the result that at least half of his jelly beans ended up in the dirt. But he found enough to keep him happy.

Tired of his hunting exertions, Andrew took a few contemplative moments on the rock in my parents front yard. I can't help but wonder what he was thinking about so intently.

Later that morning, Jared came over with his two kids, and Jeni and Samuel brought their brood over for lunch (in lieu of a big Easter dinner, for which there were apparently scheduling conflicts). So, we staged another egg hunt in the back yard. I stuffed the eggs and Dan hid them, and all the kids came away well-supplied with sugar. We even had a moderate success with lunch--Dan made quesadillas using Costco's uncooked tortillas and even the picky eaters (well, except Joshua, who is notoriously picky) ate without complaints.

After my and Andrew's respective naps, we took the boy to the library to replenish his supply of books and movies. (I took a particularly long nap, so Dan and Andrew apparently alternated between watching basketball with my dad and going outside). After putting the boy to bed, Dan and I enjoyed watching part of the first episode of Foyle's War, a mystery series which is just as engrossing the second time through (always a good sign)--we would highly recommend it to anyone interested in period drama (this is set during WWII).

And that brings us, at long last, to today. Below you can see a shot of our family in all our Easter finery--Andrew looked quite dashing in his suit for the five minutes he kept his coat on. Church itself was nice if uneventful--several nice musical numbers from the choir (their rendition of "Glory to God" from Handel's Messiah even kept Andrew quiet for several minutes), and then our respective classes. I spent today in nursery with Andrew since one of the nursery leaders called me yesterday and asked if I could sub for her--it's always interesting to see Andrew interacting with other children, but nothing particularly worth mention. (Although he did nearly occasion a war at the end of class when he refused to relinquish the last pink plastic egg to a little girl who was clearly desperate to have it. He finally graciously gave her the egg and consented to an orange one).

We hope all of our readers had a pleasant Easter holiday (kellemes Husvet!) as well.

Andrew on Easter

This morning, we asked Andrew what day today was. Of course, he had no idea, so we explained that today was Easter Sunday. Then I asked:

"Andrew, why is Easter so important?"

His answer (totally unprompted): "Because we love Jesus."

Rue is for Remembrance

Since this lovely photo of Andrew is our lone photo for the week, we thought we'd post it first, so those of you who are only looking for pictures can get the good stuff out of the way and ignore the rest of the post. It's funny to me how memory lapses work: I know that I must have done things this week, but strangely, when confronted with the blank blogger screen, my brain goes similarly blank. I'm not sure if it's impending old age or just pregnancy, but there's curiously little I remember from this week. Maybe as I write, memory will come back (but probably not. Incidentally, I can currently remember more random trivia about memory studies from my comps exam than I can about my actions this past week!).

I do know that on Wednesday we had another doctor's appointment. The doctor confirmed that the baby is still growing well and everything seems to be on target there--but I have a low iron count and need to take iron supplements (which taste, unsurprisingly, unpleasantly metallic). Apparently Andrew missed me not at all while I was at my appointment: I gather he spent a pleasant morning making a mess of Grandma's beanie babies and was mostly anxious for me to come home so he could tell me he had once more done his "business" in the potty and needed a new item for his tea set.

On Friday, Jeni and I planned a miniature "tea party" for the kids--it wasn't highly organized (or highly orthodox), but we did have hot chocolate in tea cups, along with grapes, mini muffins, quesadillas, and toasted ham-and-swiss English muffins. We made the mistake of letting the kids have the muffins first, since those were ready first, and Jacob ate so many of them that he didn't want the rest of his food. Andrew mostly demanded a little bit of everything but only ate the grapes and some vienna sausage. He just can't stand to see people eating something that he doesn't have. My mom was highly entertained by her grandkids, and she took the kids upstairs to run around while Jeni and I stayed downstairs playing with Enoch and talking. It was nice to have someone else run after Andrew for a change--although I fear that my running days are over, at least for another few months.

Yesterday was a busy day for everyone except Andrew and I. My dad and Dan were both helping out at the Spring Research conference at BYU (undergraduates presenting their research--Dan said 80% of the students he saw in the chemistry portion were Chinese students). My mom went to a stake Relief Society luncheon (which I would also have gone to, had my babysitters not all bailed on me!) and then to a funeral--one of our long-time ward members and former home teachers, Dave Burt, passed away earlier this week. Andrew and I went to the Bean Museum where Andrew pointed out the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, lions, giraffes, bears, caribou, moose, etc., and then we ran some errands and took naps. (I don't know why it never fails to amuse me to hear such big words--like "hippopotamus" coming out of Andrew's mouth).

Today has also been a bit of an adventure. We seem to still be suffering the after-shocks of daylight savings time (at least, I hope that's what it is!): the last three or so days Andrew has been waking up at obscenely early hours (which in my book is anything before 6 a.m.). This morning he was up at 5:20 a.m. (I'd been awake since 4:20, having woken up to Andrew crying out in his sleep and then, a few minutes later, say distinctly "No!"). All of this meant that by the time sacrament was underway we had a very tired boy on our hands. I think we must have one of the noisiest toddlers in the ward, and no amount of talking on our parts has sufficed to convince Andrew that he needs to use a quiet voice in church. I couldn't help but contrast Andrew with one of his nursery compatriots who was sitting behind us. Andrew kept yelling "Amen! Say Amen!" during the sacrament prayers (despite repeated hushing and hands over his mouth), wanted to know who was saying the prayers, wanted to know who was bringing the bread, announced that when he was big he would bring the bread, too, and persisted in asking questions about every two or three minutes (not whispered ones, mind you, but the kind that can be heard two or three rows in either direction). The little girl behind us, who's only a couple of months older than Andrew, sat docilely by her parents and the only noise she made was an occasional cough. Sigh.

We also had a somewhat difficult time getting Andrew dressed to his satisfaction this morning. Despite having considerable input into his outfit (a red fair-isle sweater vest over a light blue shirt with gray pants), he threw a minor fit when he discovered that his daddy was going to wear a suit. He wanted to wear a suit too. (You have to understand that at this point he already fully dressed, including shoes). So Dan decided to beat a hasty retreat, and changed into khaki slacks instead. Only then Andrew wanted to wear khakis, too. We only salvaged his sartorial sensibility by promising that Dan would wear a sweater vest--Dan unearthed a blue one that had been given to him by Uncle Jim (he told me the vest was older than he was) and wore that, which seemed to appease Andrew. Of course, he also took some ribbing for this at church--one of the elders quorum members told him that vests like that had gone out in the 80s (of course, since this was Floyd Tippets, who's never exactly been known for his fashion sense, Dan was able to let this comment ride). (Speaking of clothing, I've been more selective than usual about my own Sunday dress, mostly because I'm playing this silly game with my ward that's called "Let's see how long I can go before someone asks me if I'm pregnant"--so far, I seem to have been somewhat successful, since I'm now six months and counting and no one in my ward has yet asked me if I'm expecting. I highly doubt I can hide my bump much longer--and I'm actually rather surprised that Andrew hasn't outed me yet in that charming way that small children have.)

You'll notice I still don't have much to say about the beginning of the week--I seem to remember going to the library for Family Home Evening on Monday, and Jeni and I went to Sam's club with all the kids at some point, but I can't for the life of me remember what day that was. I did find copies of season one and two of Foyle's War (an excellent television mystery series), which Dan was pretty excited about.

With any luck, I'll be better rested next week and able to remember more (at least, more of the interesting stuff). But for now, this will have to suffice.

sleeping arrangements

Another funny tidbit on the Andrew front:

I asked Andrew, now that he's in his "big boy bed," if the baby could sleep in his crib when she comes. Andrew responded, "No."

"But Andrew, where will the baby sleep then?"

A little bit of thought. "Um . . . She can sleep in her car seat." I wonder where he picked up that idea!

Birthday Wishes

We put these videos together for Bubby's birthday (March 10)--you can judge for yourself how well we succeeded.

pictures

Cleaning out Andrew's "room":

Andrew's new bed:

Andrew in his new bed:

At Cabelas:

At the park:

What happens when Andrew chooses to dress himself:

Andrew giving himself a "shot" in his belly.

A room of one's own (but not, alas, a room with a view)

All right folks, here's the scoop: Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me add images right now (I've tried three times with no success), so you'll have to use your imagination as you read this post and we'll add the pictures later.

When I started composing this post in my mind at somepoint earlier today, I envisioned a triumphant opener. Alas, events from this evening have made our triumphant opening impossible. Our biggest achievement for this week was the purchase and subsequent construction of a toddler bed for Andrew (we've been talking to him about this for weeks). Thursday evening we cleaned out the little room (little more than a closet, really, but when you're living in someone else's house you make do with what you have) under the stairs--echoes of Harry Potter--sprayed the room with bug spray, and Dan put the bed together. The dimensions are just such that we couldn't put the bed together and then move it into the room--it was about an inch too wide and too tall--so poor Dan had to work in rather cramped space. Andrew was pretty thrilled about his "own space" (as he told my mom), and it was all we could to to persuade him that he couldn't sleep in the bed until the fumes from the bug spray cleared out . . . Friday afternoon he insisted on sleeping in his "big boy" bed for his nap. After one false alarm (I had to actually put him in his crib before he would believe me that I was serious in my threat to put him in his crib if he didn't stay in his bed), he went right to sleep. He slept in his bed that night with no problems (aside from waking up early in the unaccustomed surroundings), and was just fine Saturday as well. This was a big relief to Dan and I, as we were both braced for a drawn out battle of the bed (along the lines we've heard from some parents with strong-willed children).

Before we could crow too loudly about our parenting success, however, Andrew proved to us that the honeymoon is over. Tonight, he was as resistant as he knows how to be and it was a full hour (and some hysterical crying and a puking fit) before he would finally go to bed (and his current crying tells me we're not out of the woods yet). At least, however, he was still set on sleeping in his big boy bed and not his crib (despite one brief moment in his crying attack when he kept insisting "I not a big boy. I not a big boy!"). We're hoping that some of this fit was just due to daylight savings time, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow . . .

We spent the first part of the week recuperating from last week (and this week's) illnesses, so there's really not much to report there. Thursday morning, Andrew and I went to visit Jeni and her kids. The kids watched a movie and played while I sorted through Jeni's baby girl things (nothing like free clothing!). Everything went pretty smoothly until just before we left when, of all people, Andrew and Jacob got into a fight over Emi's Belle shoes (both of them wanted to wear them) and I had to take Andrew home.

On Friday, Andrew and I drove up to Cabela's to meet my friend Stephanie and her daughter Gaby. Since Stephanie is about a week or so away from giving birth to another little girl, we thought it was a good time for one last get-together before the baby comes. Andrew and Gaby had fun running around and looking at all of the animal exhibits, although Andrew was less interested in the aquarium than he was in the candy fish in a barrel at the entrance to the aquarium. We stopped at the Iceberg afterward, a fast-food restaurant that I'd never heard of that is apparently known for their milkshakes. Andrew and Gaby both acquitted themselves well in the food department before getting bored with food and trying to run around the store (well, to be honest, that was mostly Andrew.)

Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather to have a picnic at a nearby park. It worked out pretty well--Dan and I ate while Andrew ran around the park, and Andrew ate his food in the stroller on the way home. All that running around helped exhaust him, so he went down for his nap with minimal fuss. Which was a good thing, as I was on my way to Salt Lake on the time, which meant his dad was responsible for nap time. And while Andrew's used to his dad putting him down in the evenings, he's something of a novelty at nap time.

What was I doing in Salt Lake? Well, I went to a baby shower for an old friend I met in one of my wards while I was at BYU--probably the only person from that ward (outside of my roommates, who I'd known before) who I've kept in touch with. I hadn't seen her since my wedding reception, so it was fun to touch base. On the other hand, she was the only person at the shower that I knew, so it was a little awkward at times. Still, since they avoided the worst excesses of shower games and mostly talked and ate some good food, it wasn't too bad.

I've spent the majority of my free time this week trying to finish Andrew's Eeyore quilt. I was hoping I'd have it done by today so I could post a picture on the blog, but as it's taken me longer than I planned (doesn't everything?), I'm not quite there yet. But you can look for a picture of it in the next couple of days.

tales from nursery

The lesson in nursery today was apparently on baptism. At dinner tonight, we asked Andrew what he had learned about baptism. His response: "I go down in the water and see Jesus." Hmm. I'm not sure if this is profound or just funny, but we thought we'd share it anyway. Enjoy.

In sickness and in health

Like most weeks, this week has contained a mix of the good and bad. We had a wonderful break in the weather this week, with mild temperatures in the forties and even fifties. Andrew and I tried to take advantage of the weather to get out of the house a few times, with mixed success. On our first outing (on Tuesday, I think), we opted for a nearby park with a flock of ducks, as Andrew wanted to feed the ducks. Unfortunately, as you can perhaps tell in the background of the first two pictures below, Parks and Recreation apparently decided to fence in the pond for the winter to prevent people from trying to walk across the ice. This meant that "feeding" the ducks involved me throwing crumbs over the fence and Andrew trying to push bread through the fence or throwing crumbs *at* the fence (not exactly the most successful technique. Even though it was chain link, Andrew's throws rebounded as often as not). Still, Andrew had a great time on the swings and I managed to dissuade him from the tall curly slide by telling him it was too wet.

Unfortunately, our delight in the weather was short-lived, as by Wednesday I was dealing with a pretty obviously sick boy. It's usually a dead give-away when my normally energetic little boy decides he wants extra loves and consents to lay down on the bed to watch a movie (in this case, Elmo something-or-other). Andrew surprised me this week by twice (not once, but twice) laying down on my bed after lunch to watch something on TV while I ate my own lunch and promptly falling asleep in the bed with the lights and TV still on. (Needless to say, given our usual wrestle at nap and bed time this was a nice break). On Wednesday afternoon, after a long nap and some suspiciously fast, shallow breathing on Andrew's part, I decided to take him to the doctor, where Andrew was diagnosed with an ear and throat infection and given a prescription for amoxycillin.

The medicine and extra rest seemed to work, so by Friday he was once again bouncing around the house, raring to go, and generally driving his mother crazy. (Not, as Dan will tell you, that this is very hard to accomplish--the driving me crazy part, I mean). We went to the toy store with Jeni and her gang, intending to take advantage of some coupons in the paper, only to discover *after* arriving that the coupons didn't take effect until the next day. But the kids had a good time anyway--Andrew, especially, loves to play with the Thomas the Train display. (He has been telling us all weekend that Jacob didn't play trains with him--Jacob was looking at Star Wars books, the ostensible reason for the trip--but Emi did). And we came away with a new edition to Andrew's ever-increasing toy collection: a miniature Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi, courtesy of Hasbro's Galactic Heroes. Andrew has very little conception of Star Wars, but he was excited that his "guys" have lightsabers.

Friday afternoon, after Andrew's nap, we picked Dan up early from work and headed to his sister Sarah's house, where we had a yummy pizza dinner (Sarah thoughtfully prepared mini-pizzas for the kids to top in advance) and a generally good time hanging out with her family, Dan's parents, and his sister-in-law Laurie and Laurie's mom, who were both in town for the week babysitting Laurie's brother Blair's three girls.


We even managed to include Matt in the fun, courtesy of Skype and a computer camera. (I doubt the view from his side was as entertaining as the real thing, though). Below you can see Bubby and the girls trying to connect.


Some of my personal favorite parts of the evening were watching the youngest three (Andrew, Lydia (almost 2) and Ella (21 months)) run around together. For all her short size, Lydia can be pretty imposing when she wants, and she and Andrew spent a fair amount of time trying to boss the other one around.

Our evening was marred only by a mishap on the way home. Andrew, perhaps under the influence of too much apple juice and seven-up, wound up with a coughing fit that ended up with him puking all over himself. Luckily, we were only ten or fifteen minutes from home at that point. Unluckily, it meant trying to clean out the car in the dark and dealing with a messy child (poor kid--Andrew kept repeating, "there's someping on my legs," which were completely drenched). We managed to get Andrew and the car cleaned up (thank goodness for washable car-seat covers), but we did have one casualty of the evening. Andrew's dolly, who was in his lap at the time of the unfortunate incident, was deemed past recovery and placed discretely in a plastic bag in one of the garbage cans in the garage. Trisha will no doubt be glad of this event--Dolly was undoubtedly filthy and her hair was indescribable--but I have to confess that I feel badly for Andrew's loss. We did at least have the foresight to procure a replacement sometime back in case of this possibility, but Andrew's been sort of slow to warm up to the new dolly (probably because she's so clean and her hair still resembles, well, hair).

On Saturday, we reunited with the Eves clan at the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake. Of course, after thoughtfully packing our camera in Andrew's diaper bag, we left the diaper bag in the car, so we have no pictures to document the outing. I think the kids enjoyed it, for the most part, especially the open tank with manta rays that you could touch. Andrew was fascinated by the display, standing as far up on the side as was possible for him to do, but he refused to actually touch the rays himself. Instead, he kept grabbing my hand and sticking it in the water. I guess the vicarious experience was as much as he could handle. Andrew and Lydia did get a bit restive towards the end--Bubby, Aaron, Jake, and Katie were all ensconced in a presentation on Rain Forest animals and we didn't know when they would get out--so we had to resort to some clever entertaining (i.e., bribery) by way of candy. We finished off our morning with a somewhat disappointing lunch. Since we had small children with us, we compromised on a KFC/A&W fast food joint. Not only did the food take forever to arrive (with Andrew, meanwhile, running all over the small restaurant), but Sarah and Aaron and gang took a while to catch up with us, as they were stuck in a long line back at the Aquarium. Eventually everyone arrived and got fed, and Jake and Katie, especially, seemed to enjoy their rootbeer in frosty mugs. Andrew fell asleep in the car just before we reached home (he would have fallen asleep much sooner were it not to the herculean exertions of his parents to keep him awake by dint of singing every annoying child's song we knew) and proceeded to sleep for another two or three hours, allowing his tired parents a much-needed respite. Unfortunately, as I seem to have caught Andrew's illness, there isn't much else to report from the week--I spent most of today in bed, sleeping.