Early-onset chicken pox?

The self-inflicted kind. Luckily, they all came off thanks to varying levels of vigorous washing.  She has since roped in her little sister, and changed the color scheme to green. 

Christmas excitement

Yeah, Christmas was almost a month ago, but we're still sorting through our picture collection. If we printed out every photo from this past Christmas and stacked them, they might reach 6 feet, 2 inches high. Why such a precise calculation? Let's just say that Timo has always wished he were taller, and holds out hope that his lifelong desire will be rewarded in the hereafter.

Anyhow...We adore this photo of Our Little Mouse at our neighbors' Christmas dinner party. She was just so wildly, innocently bowled over with excitement. This picture captures just one specific moment in time that means so much to us. Mouse is at a very endearing and fun stage: she is often so excited to tell us something that her brain moves faster than her mouth, and you can see her sense of wonder so readily when we're out walking or reading or doing something new.

In addition, Mouse is sort of the yang to her big sister's yin. She is calmer, less prone to outbursts, and more laid-back. It could simply be an age thing (with either girl) that they'll develop through and alter over time, or it could really be their true personalities. While they are different in a lot of ways, we're also grateful for how they compliment each other, and the learning and relationship-building that both of our girls are getting by having a sibling so close in age.

This picture of Mouse is one we'll always treasure. I envision bringing it out at Christmases in the future, when she's older, and explaining to her that her excitement and wonder moved us.

New skills

Mouse has been expanding her repertoire of skills, and it's been a blast to see. One day during my two-week Christmas break, she followed us into the kitchen after dinner, hauled a stool to the kitchen sink, hopped up, and started "washing" the plates! All by herself, without any prompting from us. She moved too quickly for me to capture it on video.

Here she is, undaunted by the elements, pushing her baby in a plastic stroller across the frozen tundra of our backyard. She was headed straight for the end of our property, instead of following us to our car, but whatever. The girl just looks determined to get where she wants to go! I love this picture of Mouse, in boots that weigh about a third as much as she does.



We wouldn't consider this a skill per se, but Mouse loves affecting this cheesy grin when we're taking her photo. It's like she's been caught with her hand in the cookie jar and knows it, but is hoping that her cuteness will ward off the consequences. Here she is enjoying a new Christmas tradition: Dunkin' Donuts munchkins on the first morning of my long Christmas break.

Post-script to this photo: Neither Mouse nor Goose took to the Dunkin's munchkins like I thought they would, and I'm totally fine with that.

Tangled

Another first has come to pass--Goose's first time seeing a movie in a movie theatre. Like their first baseball game at Fenway Park, their first sledding outing, their first of many events, I had been anticipating this for quite some time. As in, before she was born! Luckily, the Disney movie "Tangled" dropped in theatres around the holidays, and we thought this would be the perfect motion picture for Goose to see at the cinema.

Santa brought a home-made movie ticket for her and for me on Christmas morning (see above). Our little girl really thought she needed to surrender that ticket at the ticket window. I think she was a little anxious once we stepped inside--so many people, the concessions stand, the commotion inside an aged and crowded foyer. Like any 3-year-old, she pointed to the biggest tub of popcorn when I asked what she wanted to eat! We shared it once we found our seats and the movie started.

Here she is, inside the cinema, coat still on. Goose didn't sit on her seat so much as cling to the edge of it and hold on to the back of the seat in front of her...as if the seat would start moving or something! We really liked the movie, and Goose laughed out loud a few times. Even for a 3-year-old, she can display a great deal of anxiety in new situations. She isn't as comfortable going with the flow like her little sister, for example. I rated it an A for success in that Goose didn't demand to go home when the lights went down or when Rapunzel's mom was being mean. It was the ideal movie for her to see at this age, and the computer-generated visuals were amazing.



Here we are, after the movie ended. And seeing me in this photo, you now have visual proof of why I needed to add a "no sweets/snacks except on Friday after 5pm and Saturday" to this year's list of goals (as well as exercise more). I'm more frightening to look at than Rapunzel's mother as she instantly aged in "Tangled."

Snow fun

This is one of my new favorite photos of our little girls. Taken on the Tuesday after the post-Christmas blizzard, we had a ball in our backyard trying to build a snowman. Goose loved rolling and patting snow into the bottom two of the three snowman sections, and dug being outside.

Meanwhile, her little sister Mouse was not a fan...of the cold, of the snow, of being bundled up. She was even less enthusiastic--and much more sad--when I playfully lobbed a palm-sized snowball at her chest. She wailed as if I'd just tossed her into a snowbank (which I didn't do). Mr. Snowman never really developed, and our girls had more fun tossing bread crumbs to the ravenous robins in our trees and shrubs.

There is now about 18 more inches on top of the snow you see in this photo, and I'm excited for Goose to play "King of the Hill" with me tomorrow on the 12-foot-high pile of snow left after the plow came through our driveway. I think she'll love it.

And I think Mouse will love it too, watching it all from the warmth and comfort of our back porch!

Overheard...

Goose, to me, after I returned from a visit to the Friendly's bathroom (simply to blow my nose) on New Year's Eve: "Daddy, did you bring your book in there, like you do at home?"

Sunbeam!

Glory Hallelujah! Our Dear Goose's first day as a Sunbeam (the class for 3- and 4-year-olds at church) was this Sunday. Given her track record, we were nervous. In our congregation, Goose and all other kids older than 18 months go to a kid-focused Nursery from 18 months to 3 years old. 

Last year, the Nursery was so large, it was split into a younger and an older Nursery; Goose should have continued along with her friends into the older Nursery class, but she had hated pretty much every Sunday in Nursery since she started in September 2008. Instead, she continued to put up such a sobby-faced fit that we and her teachers opted to keep her in the younger Nursery class, as Mouse's "helper" and as a helper to her teachers, all of whom deserve a medal for patiently guiding Goose each Sunday through 90 minutes of separation from us and generally not getting her way. The visual of a 3-year-old kicking it with diapered, much younger kids was occasionally entertaining, but often frustrating. We wondered and worried.

So we held our breath as Goose progressed from Nursery to Primary, which starts with 3-year-olds. The first two years of Primary are Sunbeams. We talked up that she'd have many friends in her class and emphasized all of the high points. Also, Becky gets to see Goose a bit each Sunday, as she's in the Primary leadership and helps with activities.

Anyhow, it's like a ray of sunshine descended upon Our Dear Goose. She did well! And we were thrilled to hear people complimenting her. There were still some tears, and some hesitation, but it was better than we could have hoped for her first time in Primary. She was even excited to tell us what she learned and did in her Primary class, like go up to the chalk board. When we got home, she recited the big take-aways from the story of Moses's birth. We were definitely pleased and proud parents that night!

One of Goose's goals we set for her this year was to "stay in Primary for both hours, unassisted by us." I thought we'd have to progressively work toward that goal bit by bit for much of the year. Instead, she achieved the goal on her very first opportunity, this past Sunday! Now we'll see what this Sunday holds, but it's a great start.

2011 Goals

Each New Year's Eve, Becky and I take a little time together to write out goals for ourselves, our little girls, and our family in general.  We each compile between 3 and 5, then between 1 and 3 big goals for Goose and Mouse (stay in the Sunbeams Primary class for both hours! for our independent Goose, who was still attending her 2-year-old sister's Nursery class--oh, did we fail to mention that?!; get 100% potty-trained for Mouse), and a few for our family (FHE every week, Mommy/Daddy date at least once a month, etc.)  It is fun to plan ahead and also to review our goals for the year about to end, to see what we did and did not accomplish.

In addition to the handful that make it onto our family goals list, I set a few that are less worthy of that family list, but nonetheless important to me (see Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez play for the Red Sox this year!)  Here is a sampling of 2011 goals I set for myself (I'm not posting all of them):

• Watch "Cosmos," the 1980 PBS series by egomaniacal astronomer genius Carl Sagan. I've recently become fascinated by astronomy. Though dated, "Cosmos" is something that will expand my mind about our place in the universe. 
• No sweets/desserts, except for Friday night and Saturday. This dude has both a sweet and a salty tooth, and that 1-2 punch has added to his waistline in 2010. Time for a major overhaul.
• Brush my teeth every night before bedtime. Every night. Every single blessed night.
• Get off the fence about rooting for the University of Utah or BYU. Friends and family are fanatics for either school. I'm no a college sports fan, and have no allegiance to either school, but this rivalry feels fun. My alma mater's athletics program is a joke, and maybe it's time to expand my sports interest a smidge beyond the National Pastime. I can at least say, "I care with about .000001% of my being whether that school beats the other in football," etc. [Feel free to leave comments trying to sway me one way or the other, or neither.] [I can tell writing this that I really, truly, do not--from the depths of my soul--care what I decide. Lots of words about a pretty meaningless decision. Maybe I'll pass and focus on a new goal.] 
• Have lunch with a friend whom I haven't seen in 14 long years. Funny how the roads of life take childhood friends in long, different paths for awhile.   
• Go for a walk at least one morning each week before work. Get outside, breath the fresh air, see the sun rise and the moon descend, and listen to the natural world. 
• No hamburgers in 2011. And no terrible turkey or tofu burgers as a paltry substitute, either. 

This may seem simple, too easy, or not up to snuff compared to others' goals. But for me, each one is important, and working to achieve each one will make me a better person. In particular, a lot of these goals focus on health; I think being a family man, just getting older, and knowing that it takes more time and effort on my part to get and keep my body healthy, are driving me to focus on improving physical health. 

...Except for the day when I sit under an 80-year-old steel canopy at Fenway, snarf down three pretzels and a $5 bag of 20 peanuts, and gleefully fork over $40+ for a constriction-inducing seat to see Crawford and Gonzalez in their inaugural seasons with my beloved Red Sox.