More of Andrew's circular logic

We were watching an episode of Disney's "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" where Pooh finds what he thinks is a "cookie tree." Seeing a potential learning episode, I asked Andrew, "where do cookies come from?"

"From trees," my little genius promptly responded. After we sorted out the fact that cookies do not, in fact, come from trees (more to the point, after Darby figured that out on the show), I tried my question again.

Andrew thought for a minute. "From jars."

"Well, how do cookies get in jars?"

"People put them there."

"Where do people get them from?"

"From jars."

Another day, another density--er, destiny

This week feels like it has been pretty crazy, with meetings with students, work, beginning job applications, creating messes, cleaning messes, dealing with potty training and Andrew's tendency to aim (at, near, by, and sometimes in) the toilet . . . (you can mix and match who did which of the above). Yet somehow, we have survived and may even be said to be thriving.

As usual, I don't remember much of anything before Wednesday. On Thursday, I decided to schedule a personal marathon, apparently because I sensed that my mom was going to be out of town . . . I had a playdate in the morning with an old friend of mine, Jaqui Christiansen (who, for readers interested in the world's general smallness, is married to Natalie Nichol's cousin). Andrew ran around with her two little boys for an hour or so while we chatted. Her husband just got hired in the philosophy department here at BYU and she's been teaching a couple of advanced writing classes in the evening, so it was nice to talk to someone about the curious balance of mostly mothering with an occasional teaching experience thrown in.

Shortly after our playdate, I had a visiting teaching appointment scheduled. Since I'd taken care to dress in my teaching clothes (not knowing how much time I'd have to get myself ready after the morning's festivities), Andrew of course took care to make sure I had to change anyway: he insisted that he needed to go poop, and while he was sitting on the potty doing his business, he started to cough, which led to him puking in the garbage can, and, of course, all over me. Sigh. I had just enough time to go home, change my clothes, and feed the baby before our babysitter (my mom's kind friend Mary Jane) arrived to watch the kids while I went and taught. After teaching, I came home, fed the baby again, and then took the kids up to campus where Dan and I traded and I went to some meetings for work.

Friday, luckily, was much more low-key. We played at home in the morning before going to Sam's Club for some groceries (just missing Jeni in the process). We got a Mickey Mouse Halloween movie for Andrew, which he insisted on watching after his nap, and that pretty much kept him occupied until Dan came home.

On Saturday, we split our forces. Dan took Andrew to the Bean Museum, a nearby park, and Wendy's for lunch (where he met some crazy lady who was trying to talk him into helping her with some experiment she wanted to run to cure addiction--specifically, pornography addiction, which was the example she spent most of the time talking about). Meanwhile, my mom and I took Evelyn to the mall where I updated my teaching wardrobe. As we were pulling into the parking lot, my mom asked me if I was going to our stake's Relief Society dinner before the Relief Society broadcast that night . . . at which point I suddenly remembered that I had agreed to bring a pot of soup to said dinner. So I spent the latter part of the afternoon making soup, while Andrew and Evelyn slept.

We also had some pleasantly unexpected company--Bubby and Poppy stopped by for a visit on their way back to Cedar City; Poppy had been in SLC for some work-related meetings and they'd spent the evening with Sarah and gang. It was nice to see them--and I'm sure they enjoyed the change to hold Evelyn for a bit. She's at that wonderfully responsive, chubby stage.

We had a nice evening. The broadcast was lovely--I especially enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk about the need to be both creative and compassionate. Afterwards, my mom and I went to Gymboree in quest of a specific skirt that Bubby was hunting for (for a family photo shoot at Christmas). We didn't find it, but we did find some other cute clothes. :)


This is what happens to Evelyn when Andrew decides to take charge of her entertainment. Toy overload.

For Grandma and Grandpa

Today, as we were leaving the house, Andrew insisted that he had to have some keys. I finally found him an old key for a car we no longer have and he seemed thrilled with it. When he tried to use that key to open our car door, I explained that the key didn't belong to our car.

"Well, what car does it belong to?"

"A car we don't have any more."

"What happened to it?"

"It got in an accident and we got rid of it." Which was true, but probably more than Andrew needed to know. At any rate, this is when he got his bright idea.

"We need to buy a new car!"

"We don't have money to buy a new car--we're saving money so we can buy a house."

"Why?"

"Well, Grandma and Grandpa won't want us to live with them forever."

"But we're their family!"

I pointed out that Bubby and Poppy don't have anyone living with them, and that all of his cousins have their own place. He still wasn't convinced.

"But we need to stay with Grandma and Grandpa!"

Curious, I asked, "Why?"

"Because they love us." And that, in Andrew's mind, seemed to settle it. He still thinks we need a new car.

scintilating dreams

I remember a time when I used to be ambitious . . . when I used to dream of being known, somehow, for my wit, my sharp prose, my brilliant children, something. I find myself increasingly settling for mediocrity--but I think it's a trade-off I'm willing to make, if it means happy and healthy children.

You're probably wondering where all this is tending . . . I think it's meant as an obscure apology for a blog posting that is not in any way noteworthy. I don't even remember everything I did this week. Busy, of course, trying to balance my newly schizophrenic life: home, school, back home again. But I'm really enjoying the job--the students I work with are great kids, smart and ambitious and all those things I vaguely remember being once upon a time. And of course, I enjoy my kids too. Most of the time.

I'm not sure that Thursday morning was one of those times. I took the kids in for pictures, hoping to get some nice shots of Evelyn in her blessing dress and Andrew in his smart black suit (A Macy's clearance find). I had some insane notion that I could handle both kids on my own--luckily, my mom didn't believe me and opted to come with me. It's a good thing she did, because the two of us together were barely able to keep Andrew under control (i.e., out of the photographer's gear and away from the backdrops, which Andrew persisted in seeing as some kind of elaborate tent just for him). We also took some pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes (Andrew as an elephant, Evelyn in her Tom Arma rhino costume--an Ebay find that I'm rather proud of). They were pretty cute. Of course Andrew, as obnoxious as he is, is still one of the most photogenic little kids I've met--he almost never has a bad picture when they're professionally done. (When I take his pictures, however, there's no telling). Evelyn, however, was less than thrilled with the experience. She had only just fallen asleep when we arrived at the studio. Surprisingly, they were ready for us as soon as we got there (a first, in my experience), so she was almost immediately rudely woken up by me putting her in her costume. We spent the rest of the shoot trying to keep her from crying, so I didn't, unfortunately, get what I really wanted: some good pictures of Evelyn smiling (a feat which I have yet to accomplish on my camera). I'm hoping that her Poppy got some good ones this weekend that he's willing to share.


We went down to Cedar City for a brief visit this weekend, leaving Friday afternoon and coming back this morning to arrive (late, unfortunately) for sacrament meeting at 11. (We were intending to be on time, but Andrew, our usually reliable alarm clock, surprised all of us by sleeping past 7). It was a nice visit--Bubby and Poppy got some face time with Evelyn, who was her usual charming self (well, aside from her arrival Friday night, when she was over-tired and cranky). Andrew ran around with his usual energy, thrilled to have so much adult attention. We helped pick Bubby and Poppy's garden, went to the Cow for drinks and ice-cream cones, went to Park Discovery, and moved rocks. Oh, and of course we ate lots of good food. I'm just sorry we couldn't stay longer, but Dan and I both had to teach today.

The only other noteworthy item for the week is the fact that potty-training is *finally* starting to take with Andrew. In the last four or five days, he's only had a few "accidents" in his diaper. (Almost ready for real underwear!). In fact, the last couple of days he's managed to take unattended moments to sneak into the bathroom and emerge, triumphant and pants-less, to announce that he's gone poop in the potty. The first time he did this, I didn't believe him until I saw the proof. But then he did it again while we were making dinner at Bubby and Poppy's. And today, during nursery, he told the nursery leader that he needed to go potty--and he did! This was the first time in a long time that neither Dan nor I had to leave our meetings to take care of a dirty diaper. And let me tell you, it was a nice change.

Minnie Mouse

We've come down to Cedar City for the weekend, and this morning Poppy generously made pancakes for Andrew (and for the rest of us). Our demanding little epicure, however, demanded that his be made into shapes: Mickey and Minnie Mouse, to be specific. Mickey was summarily dealt with, but Minnie's bow proved a challenge. When, after slaving over his artistic design, Poppy presented "Minnie" to Andrew, our little critic responded, "Minnie doesn't look right."

Andrew in America

This afternoon, as we were driving to the grocery store, Andrew suddenly exclaimed, "There's Bubby's favorite!!"

A little confused (thinking of Bubby's favorite flower, tulips), I asked, "What's Bubby's favorite?"

"There! The 'Merican flag! That's what she likes!"

Indeed, Andrew, I think that's what most of us like.

***

We had another compelling example of Andrew logic this morning. I told Andrew, "It's time to turn off the TV."

"Why?" (A perennial favorite of small children, especially Andrew).

"Because it's not good for your brain to watch too much TV."

A pause. "But my brain feels like it needs to see more shows."

lavender's blue, dilly, dilly . . .

. . . Rosemary's green.
When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

And of course, we shall all eat dilly bars!

I introduced Andrew this week to the joy of dilly bars from DQ. We had a free kids meal from the library for the summer reading program, so, as a reward for being good during Evelyn's doctor's appointment on Wednesday (well, as good as Andrew gets), we went to the drive-thru. Andrew was quite enamored of his dilly bar--he ate all the chocolate off it, and most of the ice cream. As you can tell, he was thoroughly enjoying it.




This week has fairly flown by, I think because we were all busy. This was my second week teaching class, and it was also our first staff meeting for Writing Fellows, along with our faculty meeting. Which means that on Thursday, I was on campus at 6:30 a.m. for our 7 a.m. staff meeting, came home, took Dan to school and the kids to the park, before heading up to campus again after lunch to teach class, and then conduct our faculty/staff meeting at 4. Phew! I celebrated surviving all of that by going shopping (of course!) with my mom to Gymboree. I don't think I've been functional that early in the morning for some time, certainly not since Evelyn's been home from the hospital.

On Saturday, we went to the Utah State Fair with family from both sides--initially, we were going to meet Sarah, Aaron and the kids, but at the last minute I convinced my sister to bring her kids too. Like most fairs, it was pricey to get in, and then nearly everything (food, rides, etc.) cost money. And of course, I brought our camera but forgot to get it out of the car, and then was too lazy (or too burdened with children, take your pick) to go back to the car and get it. But the kids seemed to enjoy themselves--they went through the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit, which let them pick corn, apples, etc., and then plant and harvest them again before "selling" their produce in exchange for a treat. (I missed most of this, as Evelyn decided she was hungry).

Jake, Katie, Andrew and Dan, Jeni and Jacob all went down the big yellow slide. Jake and Andrew loved it, but Katie and Jacob were less than thrilled with it. (I think it was a little too fast for both of them). We wandered through the animal barns--favorites were the litter of piglets (the only thing remotely charming about the pig pens, I think!) and the bunnies. Sarah made the mistake of saying she could almost be talked into a particularly cute bunny--and Jake heard her say this, and spent the next twenty minutes earnestly pleading for a bunny.

After we'd had enough of the animals, we went to find food. Because fair food is ridiculously expensive, we mostly opted for tasters (i.e. a bucket of fries for everyone), and tried the supposedly famous (it was on local television!) deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which the industrious chef covers with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce after frying. It was pretty good, but not anything to write home about, I thought. It tasted mostly like a dougnut with a peanut butter filling. (Which, I suppose, is what it was). We went with Sarah and Aaron and gang to Crown Burger after that for a real lunch; Jeni took her tired kids home (after purchasing a really cool set of costume jewelry).

Those are pretty much the highlights of our week--aside from the conversation I had with Andrew at 5:30 this morning (after he insisted he needed to go to the bathroom) about the respective differences between boys and girls and the ways they use the bathroom. (I won't go into detail here, suffice it to say it was *way* to early to be discussing such topics, I thought). We've been trying--unsuccessfully--to encourage Andrew to potty train. Again. He does pretty well with #1, but seems to take a perverse pleasure in pooping in his underpants whenever we think he's close enough to actually try wearing them. Sigh.

At least Evelyn remains charming! (Even if my pictures are unfailingly poor). Even Andrew likes her: he told Dan, "Evelyn is so cute! And so soft to hold." She sure is getting nice and chubby. She started giggling for us this week--not just big smiles (which she does frequently), but a deep, belly-shaking gurgle.





p.s. Today marks the two-year anniversary of the creation of this blog. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we've been posting regularly for so long!

Welcome to the World!

Dan's brother Matt and Matt's wife Laurie welcomed their first child--Leo Finn--to the world yesterday. We're so excited for them! Sarah has posted lovely pictures to her blog, so you can see the baby here. Dan thinks he looks like a Williams--Matt apparently disagrees. Dan also thinks that the first-born of each of his siblings seems to look more like the non-Eves spouse--a point that may be debatable, although I'd say Andrew is definitely a case in point.

Andrew is quite taken with the idea of his new cousin--mostly, I'm sorry to say, because his name is "Leo" and Andrew has some confused notion that he's related to the Leo of his favorite TV show, Disney's Little Einsteins. (And just so you know, this link is one that we use so frequently that it shows up on our pull-down menu . . . I think Andrew has all of the game options memorized).

When I told Andrew that he had a new cousin named Leo, Andrew asked, "But where are all the other Little Einsteins? Where's Rocket? And Quincy? And June? And Annie?" And he told his grandpa that Leo had red hair (he doesn't; I asked. His hair--of which he has an impressive amount--is sandy blonde).

And the numbers are in . . .

About the only thing I like about taking my children to the doctor for their well-child visits is the "official" update on their height, weight, etc. (I certainly can't say I like the shots--today, Evelyn started crying even before we put her on the table, possibly in anticipation. And then she screamed.)

Anyway, we received renewed affirmation that yes, we are feeding our daughter. She's even moved up a bit in the rankings. She's now up to 14 lbs 5 oz (68th percentile, up from 49th), 25 inches (79th percentile, up from 41st) and her head is 16.5 inches (77th percentile). All in all, she's pretty proportional, and, if not the behemoth Andrew was at her age, that's probably a good thing: she has *way* more clothes that she needs to get some wear out of before she grows out of the size.

My two look-alikes

Andrew and Evelyn between 3-4 months. 'Nuff said.

Flowers for Dolly

This week has been pretty chaotic, with the new semester beginning (and with it, my job began in earnest) and all of us adjusting to new schedules.

Monday, we enjoyed having Dan's parents in town for just a little longer. Sarah, Trisha and I went shopping in the morning while our respective spouses held down the forts at home (except for Robert, who preferred shopping--which he hates--to helping Aaron with the kids). After exhausting the possibilities at the mall, we picked up Dan and Aaron and the kids and met up at Shoots, an Asian restaurant in the Riverbottoms. The food was pretty good, but Dan and I both agreed we'd had better Chinese food. Andrew enjoyed his chow mein noodles, but spent half of his time in the bathroom (he was successful two out of three times, which is pretty good for him).

I taught class Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and I think it went pretty well, although we didn't have nearly enough time to cover all the material I wanted to cover. I'm still excited about this position--the students seem like a great bunch of students and, much as I love my children, it is nice to get out of the house and use my brain once in a while. My mom had to put Andrew down for a nap while I was teaching, and I wish she could put him down more of the time, since he's clearly much more obedient for her than for me! (I wonder why that is?) She was busy trying to feed Evelyn, so she told Andrew, go down and get in bed--and he did. My bed, that is. But at least he slept! He did the same thing on Thursday--went to bed without protest, as long as he got to sleep in our big bed, not his little bed.

And speaking of his toddler bed--Andrew seems to be giving it the cold shoulder this week. Dan went to check on him one night at bedtime, and this is what he discovered:

Andrew had dumped all his pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals in the little space behind his bed, and had fallen asleep there. He has since proceeded to do the same thing every night this week (even when we start him out in his bed), so we're not sure what to do about it, except hope that it's a phase he'll eventually tire of.

Because of our new schedule, I didn't get out as much with the kids as I have in the past (something that will hopefully change when we get used to our new schedule). Poor Andrew. He really is a social little kid. But since his older kids have started school, they're not as available for play as they have been in the past, and I need to put more effort into play dates than I have to date.

Friday morning, Sarah called us to alert us to a sale of kids shoes (Puddle Jumpers, to be exact) at a location near her, so we drove up to SLC, checked out the sale (got a pair of shoes for Evelyn, but they were all too small for Andrew) and then went to the park and to Wendy's with Andrew, Katie, and Lydia. Andrew thoroughly enjoyed being with his cousins, even if he wasn't quite as daring on the slides as Miss Lydia.

Saturday we drove up to SLC again, this time to join the whole Wells crew at the zoo. Andrew, who has wanted to go to the zoo for ages, was in heaven. Andrew's father, who dislikes the Hogle zoo, was not. Luckily for Dan, we didn't stay terribly long. We saw a few of the animals, rode the dinky little zoo train, and the zoo carousel (which is new and quite lovely, with all kinds of animals in place of carousel horses, like a praying mantis, a penguin, an okapi, etc.) Andrew rode on a giraffe, but assured Dan that he "still likes elephants."

The kids found a "jon boat" (the type used for cruising the Louisiana bayous) near the crocodile house and engaged in a rather funny rendition of "Row, row, row your boat." Dan tried to get a video of it, but unfortunately, the energy of their initial vocal outburst had died down by then. But the video is still pretty entertaining.

Andrew posing by some of his favorite statuary. (Perhaps not so coincidentally, we've already determined that Andrew is going to be an elephant for Halloween, and Evelyn--by way of a Tom Arma costume that I got off ebay and am quite excited about [but my fascination with Tom Arma is a different story]--is going as a little rhino. Sarah tells me that they do a "Boo at the Zoo" here for Halloween, so stay posted for further exploits at the Hogle zoo in a month or so).

After the zoo, we went to lunch at Red Robin and enjoyed their bottomless steak fries. Andrew polished off an entire serving of mac 'n cheese in a matter of minutes and even Evelyn got to enjoy a meal in the restaurant. We got back to Provo in time for Dan to feed Andrew and put him to bed and for me to take Evelyn to the adult session of stake conference. I have to admit that I was a little frazzled and grumpy (and late) when the meeting arrived, but I ended up being glad that I went because I was able to come away feeling spiritually refreshed in a way that I haven't felt nearly often enough recently. Unfortunately, this morning's conference (broadcast from the Marriott center) wasn't quite as effective for me--mostly because Andrew kept both of us largely preoccupied.


Some of our favorite Andrewisms this week:

One day, he came into the house carrying a wilted and bedraggled pair of petunias that had literally been uprooted. When we asked him what they were for, he said that he had picked the flowers for his dolly (the infamous and mangled Belle doll). The flowers proceeded to adorn his little coloring table for the next several days, until I finally made him throw them away. "Why?" He wanted to know. "Because they're dead," I told him. This morning on our way to church he wanted to pick some replacement flowers, and when I told him not to pick Grandma's flowers, he contented himself with picking some leaves, "because Dolly likes leaves." (Apparently he also told Dan that he didn't want to go to church today because he needed to take care of Dolly--he needed to feed her.)

A couple of nights ago, Dan came home from some errand or other with a vanilla frosty for me. I didn't have time to eat it then (I was busy with work) and so I put it in the freezer for the next day. The next morning, while I was taking care of Evelyn, my industrious little boy pulled a chair over to the fridge, opened the freezer and extracted the frosty. He told me, "Look mom! I found a frosty for me to eat!" Since it was almost lunchtime, I managed to dissuade him from *my* frosty. But his ingeniousness is pretty funny, when it's not aggravating.