Summering

Now that graduation and Dan's trip to AZ are behind us, we're on our way to enjoying summer vacation. Well, the kids and I are. Dan is planning to spend the summer on research.

We spent this past week visiting my parents. On Wednesday, our first day here, I took Andrew and Evelyn to the brand-new aquatic center at the community rec center. I think Andrew could go every day--he loved the big slides and the diving board and the rock wall (that lets you drop off into a deep pool when your hands get tired). Evelyn liked the kiddie pool the best, so I spent most of my time somewhere between the two kids, trying to keep an eye on both. I'm glad my mom took Oliver, otherwise I don't think we'd have made it.

Thursday very nearly saw Andrew's demise--he was bored, and it showed. He tormented his sister and drove his grandparents crazy. Luckily, we figured out that he just needs some time for physical activity, so Friday we started off with an early morning walk and a visit to a local duck park. Oliver was entranced by the ducks and the baby ducks. I counted nearly 30 ducklings on the pond. They were adorable--all but the one dead duckling that some little boy had fished out of the water. Yuck.

Yesterday we spent with Sarah and her family. We'd planned on going to the zoo--along with, apparently, the rest of SLC. We arrived around 10:30 and decided almost immediately not to stay, as there was no free parking left and the sheer volume of people made it clear that it wouldn't really be a pleasant experience. We're hoping to try again sometime soon.

Instead, we went to what Sarah's kids have dubbed the "Cinderella park." The kids played while the adults watched and Oliver napped. (We have Sarah to thank for the pictures as our camera battery died just as we arrived.)

After the park, we had lunch at Chuck-a-Rama, to the kids' and Aaron's delight. Dan doesn't love mass-produced food, but Andrew was in hog heaven. He ate so much we were worried he wouldn't keep it all in. On the way out to the car, he said he thought he was going to puke. I told him if he did, we wouldn't ever come back. A little while later, he changed his tune and asked "What do I get if I don't puke?" Nothing, we said. You get the joy of not puking.

One last story, from Evelyn. At dinner one night we were talking about Dan's current position as the cub scout master. Evelyn listened for a minute and then said, "What's Poppy the master of?"

Because, of course, everyone should be the master of something.

Bum-scootin' boogie

Dan bought me a new camera for mother's day (all my complaints about the old one must have worked!). This post represents its maiden voyage--let us know what you think of the new pictures!

This last week was a little crazy. Dan spent the week in Phoenix, at the International Science Fair, enjoying some good food and the students' enthusiasm for science. From what he's described, there were some pretty amazing projects there (the winning student, from Romania (?) designed an energy-efficient car with 3-D vision technology). In any case, he came back enthusiastic about working with the university's science fair next year, so I call that a win.

Because he was gone, my mom came down to spend the week with us. It was so nice to have her here, not just because having another grownup was a bonus. But my mom almost single-handedly whipped our yard and garden into shape. Now we actually *have* a garden (planted and everything). We just need to not kill it.

Otherwise, the week was pretty standard; Oliver and Evelyn spent the week recovering from last weekend's sicknesses (Oliver still isn't 100%). But he's cute, so we forgive him the broken nights' sleep.

My last post mentioned Oliver's new tooth. If you look closely, you can see it breaking through the surface here (upper left).

This past Thursday also marked Oliver's eleven-month birthday. So here's the obligatory Eeyore picture (at 2 months, and on Friday). Time has a weird way of telescoping with small children; it's been an eternity and no time at all. Apparently I'm still not over the trauma of his birth: we watched the latest episode of Call the Midwife tonight, where one of the characters has a placenta abruption, and I almost couldn't watch it.

 

 I know mother's are supposed to be partial, but I love this face: those big eyes and that funny little tucked in mouth.

Dan came home with souvenirs from the Phoenix Zoo. Andrew bonded with his (a king snake). Evelyn is also enamored of hers, a pink and purple giraffe with a sparkly purple hair bow. Her favorite part is something Dan unfortunately didn't realize until he got it home: it makes the world's most obnoxious giraffe call.

Some final updates for the week. I tried feeding Oliver an actual banana this week (not mashed up or otherwise pureed), and with his emerging tooth to give him purchase (and scraping power) he loved it.

Also, he's started moving. But not crawling. Instead, he's borrowing a note from Evelyn's book and scooting on his bum. After two kids doing this, I finally figured out what the issue is: once they start sitting on their own, I don't do tummy time nearly as often because they don't like it. So when they start to move, they start out from the position that they spend the most time in.

It's still pretty stinking cute.

Teeth!

Why is it that if someone is called "toothy" it's not a good thing, but to be "toothsome" is?

Today has been a tooth kind of day around here. Oliver has cut his first tooth--the upper left front tooth. (I thought most babies got their bottom teeth first, but Oliver's top teeth are apparently coming in first).

Another tooth first: our first orthodontist appointment, for Andrew. One of his adult molars is crowding out a baby molar. The orthodontist was hoping to put in a spacer to help the teeth shift on their own, but five failed attempts later, he concluded that we'll revisit this in three months and hope the teeth have self-corrected--or Andrew will have to have the baby molar pulled. Poor kid. I foresee an expensive future for his teeth. Wait--maybe I should have said poor parents!

Birthdays

 This week, we celebrated Evelyn's fifth birthday. It's hard to believe (don't moms always say this?) that it's been five years since her unexpected advent into the world. (She was a full month early--arriving just one day after my parents left town for vacation).

Since I was planning on heading up north for the LDStorymakers writing conference on Evelyn's actual birthday, we celebrated it early. Ever since Andrew had his last birthday party at the local aquatic center, Evelyn has been wanting to have hers there as well. However, a bunch of seven year olds is a very different proposition from a bunch of five year olds. Evelyn had two friends come, plus an older brother of one friend to keep Andrew company. She had a lovely time, but I spent most of the time feeling like I was trying to herd cats--at any given moment, one of the three five year olds was off doing their own thing and I'd have to try and corral them together again.

Oliver also thoroughly enjoyed the water, though he was pretty exhausted by the time we finished.

Thursday morning, a friend and I drove up to Provo, with Evelyn and Oliver in the back seat (Andrew stayed with his dad, since he did not want to miss his school field trip on Friday). I spent most of Friday and Saturday at the writing conference, while my mom watched my two younger kids. This was, I realize, a very generous gesture on her part, especially since Oliver invariably refused to drink the milk I left for him.

I can't speak for how the others enjoyed their Friday and Saturday--Andrew had his field trip, Evelyn had a tea party with her cousins, Dan worked--but I had a (mostly) lovely time at the conference. Some of the sessions I went to were enormously helpful; some were less helpful, but the reviews were still useful. And it was fun to see writing friends and meet new ones. (I've said more about it on my other blog, but I don't want to bore readers who aren't interested).

I arrived home late Saturday night to an interesting challenge: I wound up taking Oliver to the ER just before midnight for croup; Evelyn might have pink-eye (although her eye looks much better today than yesterday); and Andrew has a nasty cough. And of course, in the midst of all this sickness, Dan had to leave early this morning for a work-related trip. Happy mother's day!

(Really, happy mother's day. My own mother helped salvage mine by arriving here this evening to help with the sick kids for the next few days).

Cinco de Mayo

 Like many other Americans, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo by eating Americanized Mexican food . . . Dan made some great carnitas and we built tacos out of it. The kids, of course, turned up their noses at the meat (at least, in the tacos), but they did enjoy the Mexican brownies with a hint of cinnamon and cayenne pepper (I don't think they noticed the pepper).

We did *not* celebrate "May the Fourth" as many other people did, by watching Star Wars. Instead, Dan went to graduation, and that afternoon/evening, we went to the baptism of a good friend and neighbor (well, his parents' are friends of ours; he's a friend of Andrew's) and then enjoyed a nacho bar with our neighbors.

We've finally gotten some lovely mild spring days; earlier this week I let Evelyn and Oliver play outside with a bowl of water while we waited for Andrew to come home from school. Of course, it took all of thirty seconds for Oliver to figure out how to lift the bowl and dump it all over himself, but I got some lovely pictures.

Thursday afternoon was Andrew's first grade program. Andrew participated enthusiastically.  And smiled at me every time I lifted up the camera. I think it's interesting--as he grows, he starts looking (I think) more and more like his dad. Although he still looks a lot like me as a kid, minus the red hair, and you know, girl clothes.

 The latter part of the week involved a whirl-wind trip up north where I was to participate in a book signing at Women's Conference. Accordingly, I went, and my parents watched Evelyn and Oliver (Andrew stayed home with his dad). The signing went okay--we didn't have the crowds we'd had earlier, which sort of surprised me, since I figured Women's Conference would be an ideal market for the book. On the other hand, I did see a couple of old friends (from high school, from my London study abroad), so it was worth the trip for those reasons alone. However I've decided I do not like traveling solo--Oliver has decided he doesn't like long car trips, so he cried for close to an hour each way . . .

While I was gone, Dan let Bubby shave Andrew's head. Of course, he had my blessing, but this will still take some getting used to!