Baby laughter

I also spent a ridiculous amount of time in the last week or so trying to get a video of Oliver giggling. These are some of our best efforts.

Oliver *loves* to watch his siblings dance. He thinks it's hilarious. Here's Oliver watching Evelyn dance to "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Oliver is also officially "lumpy" now--that is, he can sit up by himself for extended periods of time.

But not always.

Happy Easter!

 We've enjoyed some lovely spring weather this week--we've tried to take advantage by playing outside as much as we can (and doing some yard work, too). Andrew had spring break, which meant he was home during the day for most of the week, which gave him time to annoy bond with his siblings.

He does love to hold Oliver, which is nice. This week he tried to read stories to Oliver, which worked out okay until Oliver tried to eat the book. I think almost everyone who knows Andrew comments on how much Oliver looks like him.

 

 

We also got to spend time with cousins, since Matt and Laurie are in town with their kids. Thursday morning, we dyed Easter eggs with them.

 

Clara apparently did not enjoy having me take her picture.

 Because of the nice weather, I've been pulling out some of Oliver's warm weather clothes--almost all of which come from Andrew. It's amazing how many  memories are attached to particular outfits (like this one, which Andrew wore for pictures with Jake and Katie, and for the fourth of July his first year).

I took the kids to a baptism yesterday, for a friend of mine's daughter (she's also in Andrew's primary class). She looked radiant and the baptism was lovely--it would have been lovelier if Andrew and Evelyn hadn't decided they were bored as soon as the baptism itself was over. I hope Andrew stays more interested when it's his turn! Afterward, we had to sneak out a few minutes early so I could take the older two home and then go right back to the stake center for a young women's dinner that the stake hosts, followed by the young women broadcast. Oliver stayed with me, but I still had lots of time to think and reflect while I listened to the broadcast, something I needed to do.

We had a mini-egg hunt yesterday with our kids (surprise, surprise, they found a few Skylanders with their eggs . . .) which meant that our morning today was a little calmer. Dan took the older kids to Bubby's while Oliver napped and I tried to figure out my young women's lesson (note to self: technology is not always the best option--I was trying to do a powerpoint with embedded videos. We had to try all three laptops in our house before we could find one that would run the powerpoint, show the video, *and* connect to the projector--and even then, Dan had to download some software to view the powerpoint).

After church, we had a lovely, if untraditional, dinner at Bubby's house. Since today is also my  niece Lydia's birthday, dinner was her request: Chinese salad, potstickers, rice, and fortune cookies.

 Here are my kids after church, shortly before they shed their Easter clothes. I couldn't get a good shot of the three of them; I'm hoping Sarah had more luck and I'll post her picture.

Sarah and I put together an egg hunt for the kids. Unfortunately, the kids moved too fast to get a good shot, but here's Evelyn, posing after finding all her eggs.

We finished off with presents, cupcakes, sherbet and a rousing game of "pin-the-bow-on-Hello-Kitty," which Andrew won because he was the only child to actually get the bow on the poster . . .

After that, we escorted our tired brood home, where they are now hopefully all sleeping!

Andrew's science fair award

Here's a video of Andrew's teacher announcing his award. It's not great (I was holding Oliver at the time), but  you can see Andrew's reaction as he goes up to get the award.

I wanted to add: we had a lovely visit yesterday with my cousin Sara, who was on her way to the Grand Canyon with her kids. I haven't seen them for many years, so it was nice to be able to catch up. It's still sometimes weird to me that I'm a grownup (and have been now for half my life--you'd think I'd get it by now)--but this is never driven home to me so forcefully as when I'm with cousins, for some reason.

Science Fair (and other things)

We spent the early part of this week working on Andrew's science fair experiment (which measured electrical conductivity; it helps to have a dad with access to university-level equipment!). At this age, entering the science fair seems to be a whole family endeavor: Dan helped Andrew with the project idea; I helped by taking pictures and then helping put the poster together. Andrew did the brain work (I wrote up pretty much what he told me to explain the experiment--apparently, he wanted to study conductivity so he could know what kinds of things were not safe in a lightning storm. Because electricity: it's all about lightning.)

Andrew's a naturally competitive child (for my book group last week, we read how extroverts are motivated by competition; introverts more by cooperation. This seems to be one more confirmation that perhaps two introverts can produce an extroverted child). Because of this, he's also highly motivated by winning--and he spent the days before the science fair speculating what place he might take. We tried to caution him that he might not take any place--like any judged endeavor, some of it depends on what the judges think of the project.

 A large part of the score for the science fair is based on presentation--on how well the child can explain their project to the judges. As we all know, Andrew's good at talking--and this put him in good stead here.

Andrew won first place for the first grade part of the competition. Dan and I had similar reactions when we found out: one part pride, one part chagrin. We're proud of Andrew for his work; but now we have to go to the district science fair. And I'm pretty sure we've just committed to doing the science fair from here on out (as I said: Andrew is motivated by winning).

I tried to take pictures of the actual assembly where he won, but my camera is lousy at focusing on moving targets: all I got were a bunch of blurry shots. (And I'm hoping it's the camera, not just me).

I was hoping to upload a video of Andrew's reaction, but it turns out it's too large for blogger. I'll see if I can edit it down.

In other news for the week, we missed Oliver's nine month birthday (and the requisite Eeyore shot), so here it is.

Also, sitting in the laundry basket is great practice for sitting up (if you topple over, there are great handles to hold you up).

 

Last of all, I submitted the pitch for my novel to a web contest (Pitch Madness) and made it to the agent round (that means that later this week, agents will visit the hosting websites and--if they're interested--request pages from the contestants). I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it is kind of exciting. If you're interested in checking it out, this is the blog where I'll be at (March 26-29). Mine is BEING THE QUEEN: http://shelleywatters.blogspot.com/2013/03/cover-reveal-brenda-drakes-library.html

Have a great week everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 My red hair not withstanding, I don't think I'm actually Irish--more of an English, German, Scandanavian mongrel. But we like St. Patrick's day all the same. We had Stake conference this morning, but we all wore something green (note, only the picture of Andrew was actually taken today). And in about an hour we'll be celebrating dinner with Bubby and Poppy with meat, potatoes, and cabbage. Doesn't get too much more Irish than that. (However, we abandoned the idea of a real Irish dessert, since many of them seemed to involve copious amounts of alcohol).

This week was a departure from our normal routine: the university had Spring break, which meant that Dan didn't have to teach and Evelyn wasn't in preschool (since she attends the university preschool). However, since Andrew was still in school, we didn't actually go anywhere.

Dan and I worked on the yard, trimming trees (Dan) and bushes (me). To be honest, Dan did the  lion's share of the work, since it turns out Oliver doesn't like being strapped to my back while I prune roses.

On Wednesday, Dan generously ran interference with the kids so that I could revise an article that was due back to the editors on Friday (and, like most such things, it took a *lot* longer to revise than I'd expected. Funny how hard it can be to really think sometimes). Needless to say, I enjoyed my week a lot more once that was finished.

Yesterday we spent a fair amount of time sprucing up the inside of our house: we finally got rid of our old TV and entertainment center; we also traded up our couch! My friend Elaine was getting rid of this lovely couch below (she was getting new ones), and we were happy to take them off her hands. That meant we had to do something with ours (like the one Evelyn is reclining on above). I posted a message on facebook--and we got a quick response from one of my sister-in-law Laurie's aunts. Saturday morning, while Dan and Poppy were retrieving our couch, two of Laurie's cousins (Bryce and Jeff, for those of you who know them) came by to remove our old couches. Apparently Laurie's cousin Bryce is moving into our ward, which means that the Williams' family is officially taking over. (Also, Laurie--since I know you actually read this!--they're planning on moving on the 30th, so you guys might want to be busy that day . . . )

This last bit is for the grandparents. Oliver still isn't very good at eating, but like both his siblings, he *does* like food.

New haircut--with bangs!

And yes, the exclamation point is fully deserved. I don't think I've had bangs for fifteen years.

I think I like it--though I'm still adjusting. At least it's too short now for Oliver to try to eat it (at least, not as easily).

Spring Break?

Technically, our Spring Break starts tomorrow. Not that we're doing much of anything, since Andrew has school all week (why the university and the local school district can't coordinate breaks better, I've not yet figured out). Also, we don't have the money to go anywhere really. But still--we can have fun, right?

Some of the fun items from last week: I volunteered to help with the school book fair. That actually *was* fun, despite the fact that Oliver remained strapped to my chest for over two hours and my back hurt at the end of it. There's something about books . . . my first true love. (Don't worry; Dan is well aware of this!)

Dan and I got to visit with Andrew's teacher for parent/teacher conferences. Andrew is, not surprisingly, well above grade level in reading and math. He manages to squeak by in terms of hand-writing and grammar (lest you think he's some kind of wunderkind). This was moderately fun, despite the presence of all three children.

We gave Oliver baths. This is nearly always fun, as he is such a charmingly happy child with a big, open-mouthed grin that you can't help but respond to. I cropped this picture so that you don't get the full glory of baby nud*ty--but you can tell Oliver's living it up in the bathtub.

 

For the weekend, we took the kids to Bubby and Poppy's condo, where we spent Friday night. We had dinner at Olive Garden (for Dan), breakfast at the Golden Corral (Andrew and Evelyn's new favorite, thanks to their grandparents!), and dinner on Saturday at Red Robin. Like many of our vacations, this did revolve at least somewhat around food.

We also took the kids to a local swimming pool. It was Oliver's first time swimming, so we had to get a picture of him in his swimming duds (the rash guard reads: "Tons of Fun"). The pool had a kiddy pool area, complete with johnny-jump-up sort of things hanging just above the water for babies. When I first put Oliver in, he didn't know what to think--he pirouetted for a while, one fat foot on the floor while the other foot paddled the water. After a while, he discovered that he could bounce gently up and down, which he did with ferocious concentration. I think he enjoyed moving independently.

Oliver is getting to that delightful easy-to-entertain baby stage. He's almost able to sit on his own. In the meantime, he's happy to grab anything within grabbing distance, especially his toes. (He also likes my hair, which he inevitably tries to eat. Sadly, since I'm liking my longer length, I think I will need to get a shorter cut, at least until Oliver stops trying to eat my hair. His grip is surprisingly strong--and painful--so I think some of the hair must go. Any ideas?)

Trying New Things

I like Sundays. I like that the pace is less hectic, that my family gets to spend time together. I also like not having to cook dinner, thanks to some fabulous in-laws . . . I also enjoy going to church (most of the time) and being reminded of the spiritual things that should take more precedence in my life. I don't enjoy wrestling kids, but they were pretty good today. In particular, I love watching Andrew hold his little brother during sacrament meeting: he wraps his arms snugly around Oliver, sniffs his hair, and rains little kisses on him. (Who can blame him? Oliver is pretty hard to resist).

On Monday, I was one of the judges for Andrew's school spelling bee. Andrew qualified for the 1st-3rd grade spelling bee, so he got to compete. I spent the morning praying that he would at least make it through the first round. He did; and got out in the second round (spelling "observe" with about three extra e's). Prepping for the spelling bee was challenging for me. I knew from experience that if you don't study the words, you generally don't make it very far (especially if you're seven and you're up against nine-year-olds). So I tried to encourage Andrew to study--I even spent several different times quizzing him on the words. But I also didn't want to make the spelling bee "my" thing, so I tried to let my actions be dictated by his--I helped him when he wanted and I backed off when he didn't want to work on the words. I knew going into it that he wouldn't win--he hadn't studied enough for that--but I was proud of him for working at something new, and I think that he might be motivated to work harder next year (this is one child who is seriously motivated by competition).

I also got to judge the district spelling bee on Friday, which was a lot of fun--even if two of the finalists both misspelled "rhetoric." I came home and tried to explain rhetoric to Andrew; if he ever makes it that far, that is one word he better know (you know, since I spent the first two years of his life writing my dissertation on the topic).

My mom came and visited us this week--thank goodness! I don't think I would have made it through the end of the week without her. Thursday and Friday I attended a leadership conference on campus (part of my Summit responsibilities), and the district spelling bee was Friday afternoon (as I mentioned). My mom was a good sport about helping with the kids--and it was so fun to have her.

Friday night I dragged her to a special book group meeting--Ally Condie (who grew up here in town) was in town and willing to do a book signing. It was fun to listen to her talk about her experience writing the Matched trilogy, especially since she was speaking to a group of people she knew (including her college roommate and her sister), so she was relaxed and open. I think my mom even enjoyed it--despite the fact that she didn't know anyone else there and she hadn't read the books.

In other news, Oliver has finally figured out how to eat solid foods without pushing most of it out of his mouth with his tongue. This week, we mastered rice cereal and carrots.