A Four Year Old's Worldview

Becca asked an important question today. She asked Mary, "Which child do you love the most?"

Mary said, "I love all my children the same."

Becca replied, "No, you don't. You love me the most."

The Oldest Three Children Are OffensIve

Grace, Caleb and Joshua each had a basketball games yesterday.

They each scored ten or more points. 

Time to Sing

I love the songs of Christmas. We had a wonderful time at church today. There were a number of great songs from the Christmas program in our ward. I loved the version of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" that the choir sang. These songs are great, but I love to hear our kids sing even more. This evening, Rebecca was singing "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem." I loved it. And you can't beat Ruth's rendition of "Fringle Bells."

Hope you are singing the songs of the season.

Part of Being Two

Ruth is two years old. She doesn't act two years old all the time, but she is a two year old. One way it is true, is when I try to leave for work. She doesn't want me to leave. I have to detach her from my neck or legs and pass her off to Mary. If I don't give her to someone else, she runs out the door after me.

It is all about being a two year old around here.

Ruining a Halloween Tradition

We don't have a many Halloween traditions. And our observance of the few "traditions" is less than 100%. But, it has been axiomatic that if we are going to carve our pumpkin, it would be after Halloween. This year, Mary promised the kids that we would carve the pumpkin before Halloween. Not only did she promise, she delivered.

Behold, our jack-o-latern:

In order to understand the final product, a word on the process. Each child drew one part of the jack-o-latern's face. This gave us a bit of a Picasso effect without the artistic touch of said master. Oh well. I love it. And we will actually have something before Halloween.

Could this be the start of a new tradition?

Older

Caleb fell asleep downstairs tonight. I carried him upstairs to his bed and then lifted him over my head to put him into the top bunk. 

One of us is getting too old for this. Or maybe it is both of us. 

A Halloween Tip

If you like pumpkins and you like ice cream, do yourself a favor and pick up some pumpkin ice cream from Trader Joe's. You will thank me later.

What are you waiting for? Go.

Halloween Time

Well, I didn't get any good pictures of the kids for the Halloween party that we went to last week. But I do have these photos. We are going to have three witches this year (non-literay edition), a referee and a cowboy. Hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating Halloween.

A Sunday Nap?

Ruth still needs a nap. Unfortunately, on Sundays she does not usually get one due to our church schedule. This leads to a little extra grumpiness on Sunday nights. In a response to this, we have tried to have earlier dinners. If the kids behave, then we will put on a movie after dinner. Ruth likes some movies and this will help stave off some of the craziness. This Sunday, we ate early because Grace and Mary had a meeting back at church. I put on Ruth's favorite movie, "Despicable Me," after dinner. We sat in the rocking chair and watched the movie together.

It was time for a nap after the first 30 minutes of the movie, though I am not sure when Ruth fell asleep in my arms.

The Great Divide

Time for important questions: where do you land on the great divide? Are you a cake doughnut fan or a raised doughnut fan? These are truly the important questions in life.

Want to know where Ruth falls on the divide? She says, "Doughnut. Breakfast. Sure."

(Though truth be told, she only ate the part of the doughnut with the strawberry frosting. Anyone want the bottom half of a raised doughnut?

Disaster Baby

Ruth has a number of nicknames. One of my personal favorites is disaster baby. I think it comes part and parcel with being the youngest child. She sees what all the other kids are doing and wants to do it. Unfortunately for us, she is highly successful at doing it as well. For example, we have had kids that could climb counters. We have kids using counters to get to things on high shelves. They get up for something. The difference for Ruth is that she is a climber. She gets up on everything. I am constantly getting her down from the counters, the table, the changing table and anything else she can scale. And climbing is just the start of the list. She gets into things, destroys things and constantly looks cute. I guess that is what being 2 is all about.

Here is what two looks like.

Incredibly adorable, always trying to do your thing and lulling your parents to sleep so you can get into trouble sooner.

Highs and Lows

Mary needs a project to work on. She is just built that way. This year, she has spent time running. She runs for exercise but not necessarily for time. Most years, she runs a couple of 5Ks and one 10K. She recently ran a 10K in 50:14 which is her personal best. If she can knock off another 25-30 seconds, she will be running sub eight minute miles. Even though she isn't running for speed, her consistency has helped her drop her time. Her hard work is really paying off. It has been a runner's high for her this year.

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On the other hand, there are some things that you can't really fight off. One of those things is the fact your children keep growing. Recently, Grace has surpassed Mary in height. Wonder how Mary has taken it?

Mary is squatting slightly in these photos, but Grace has recently grown a bit.

Adventures in Eating

We went out to dinner last night. When we walked in the restaurant, Ruth saw a server with dessert. There was a lot of whipped cream on this dessert. Ruth thought it was ice cream and asked if she could have a bowl. Mary told her that she would have to eat her dinner before she could have ice cream. Mary then asked Ruth, "What are you going to eat for dinner?"

Ruth looked in her eyes and said, "Ice cream."

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I asked Ruth was she wanted for breakfast this morning. She said she wanted "Life Cheerios." She told Mary the same thing.

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Rebecca wanted her leftovers from last night for breakfast. This means she ate a little bit of a chocolate Frosty, most of her macaroni and cheese and a bit of a bowl of plain oatmeal with craisins.

Breakfast of champions, anyone?

Parenting

Raising children is not an easy thing to do. You talk with your children, plead with them, cajole them and pray for them. Sometimes you just aren't sure that you are equal to the task of helping them realize their potential. I am still early in my parenting journey, but I have definitely worried about my kids. I worry how they will turn out and what they will remember about their childhood. My parents still have the same concerns and they have been parenting a lot longer than I have. So how do you know how you are doing as a parent?

One way that I measure my parenting is how I hear the kids act and speak when they don't think I am around. Recently, I overheard Grace telling Caleb that he is part of our family and he can do hard things. When I heard her say that, I was so happy. At least one of my parenting messages was getting through to Grace. I have realized I have to celebrate the victories whenever they come. 

Tonight I celebrated a different victory. As Ruth was falling asleep, she got out of bed, curled up on the floor, put her arm around the basketball in the girls' room and fell asleep. She was holding the basketball in her sleep. 

Now that is a sign of a kid that is being well raised. 

An Observation on Nicknames

One of Becca's nicknames is Boo Boo. (No relation to Honey Boo Boo.) She has had this nickname for a while. The other day she was speaking with Mary and said, "My name means owie."

Here is a recent picture of her.

Another Good Start

Two days ago, Becca was in our room while we were getting ready for the day. She walked over to Mary and said, "You are my best Mommy."

Two Days Ago

I came home from work. I found Joshua on his bedroom floor with some of his friends.

A Good Start to the Day

I say goodbye to the children before I leave for work. Today, when I got to Becca, I kissed her and said, "I love you."

She looked at me and replied, "I love you more."

A great way to start the day.

Food

Guess who had a fun time trying oatmeal for the first time today?

A New Word

We spent a long weekend at a friend's house earlier this summer. They have Monopoly at their house and Mary introduced Grace and Caleb to it. Caleb fell for it and asked for the game on his birthday. Joshua has had a hard time pronouncing Monopoly. He started with Monokuly. But he came up with a new one yesterday. He called it Moneyopoly. I think that captures the true essence of the game, don't you?