Primary trip to the Boston Temple

Our church congregation recently went to the Boston Massachusetts temple on a hot, bright-blue sky morning. I was the only dad in attendance, because I had the day off. It felt a little awkward, but whatever. The important thing was that I was there with my family, at a place where our religious belief concentrate on the eternal union of families. How cool is that?

While there are lots of things about my particular faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that puzzle me or give me pause, the temple is one aspect of our religion that really gives me the "big picture" of the meaning of life, something I had been searching for. The temple is about the eternal course of life, reliance upon our Savior, and the possibility of returning to Jesus with our loved ones to be together for all time. I don't get into the nitty-gritty of what went on in a certain verse in a particular chapter of a specific book in the Bible or Book of Mormon. I recognize that that's not a laudable approach, but right now, I'm all about the basics, the fundamentals, of faith. In a simple way, the temple and the sacrament of bread and water on Sundays gives me those basics.

So to be at a temple with the most important and fun people in my life? I'll take that day any time. 

 

We toured the beautiful temple grounds. In fact, long before I became a Mormon (10 years ago this December...just to give you notice to order your anniversary gifts!), I had sought out this temple for landscape photos. You can see the temple from a nearby highway, high on a hilltop. It looked like nothing I had ever seen before. I used to come to this temple under those circumstances (alone, and with a photographer's eye). How cool that I now go to this temple under different circumstances, as a husband and father trying to figure out what's best for our little family.  

 

Our three kids ran around the lawn, climbed on the granite, and played with friends. They laughed and hugged and ran away from us, all under a deep-blue sky. We all went inside the temple as a family to pray for someone who is sick. You can do that in any temple by putting that person's names on a prayer roll. One funny incident from the prayer role tour:

 

Becky asked Mouse, "Is there someone you can think of who is sick or who we worry about?"

 

Without batting an eye, Mouse replied, "Yeah, [so-and-so friend's] daddy!" Now, this guy is a very good friend of our family's and thankfully he isn't sick or distressed. When we told our friend about this, he laughed it. "So, are you guys sitting around your dinner table concerned for me?!"

 

We had a lot of fun and some special moments with our three kids at the temple. We should do this more often.   

800th Post! and no promises

My my, dear sweet Caroline. Where has the time gone?

Our Dear Goose is starting Kindergarten.

Recently, she was talking with our neighbors about going to school. They shared a funny comment with us last night from Goose's conversation with them. "Daddy better not cry!" she told our neighbors.

No promises on that one, sweetheart.

But I can promise you that I am and will always be proud of you and am so thankful for the treasure trove of memories of your earliest years. You were my first little best buddy. We will always be friends. I have loved you from the moment you entered our lives five and a half years ago. I will always love you. 

And while time moves on, I am pretty confident that the best is yet to come for you, for you and me, and for our family.

One Shoe Mr. Moo

Mr. Moo has a very big thing for shoes right now. He wears a brown pair of plastic crocs most summer days, as seen above. What you will also notice in the photo is that he's only wearing one shoe. It's quite typical behavior for him, actually. So, his shoe addiction has two components:

One, he will instantly try to take off his shoe(s) whenever he sees that I've left my shoes, sneakers, or sandals around the house. He hasn't quite mastered how to get his crocs off. Right now, he will sit on the floor and rub his heels together until I intervene and help de-shoe my son. He's also drawn to his sisters' footwear, Becky's shoes, and friends' shoes.

Two, the aforementioned habit of wearing only one shoe. We thought we might be exaggerating his unintended fashion statement and thus didn't really take notice of it until we were up at Storyland with three couples and their kids (18 people total, including 10 kids who were age six and under! More on that later), and our friend Jessica commented on it. Mr. Moo alternates which foot has a shoe on it from day to day, with no rhyme or reason.

Moose is drawn to shoes like moths to a light. So, just a warning to upcoming and future visitors: If you love your shoes and don't want slobber, dirt, glue, etc. added to your footwear, it's best to keep your shoes in a safe place in our house. Otherwise, Mr. Moo will find them! 

Just another funny little insight into our family life as the summer of 2012 winds down.

Reminds me of one of my favorite lines from a favorite '80s song, Don Henley's "Boys of Summer"...

"I feel it in the air, summer's out of reach. 
Empty lake, empty streets, the sun goes down alone. 
I'm driving by your house, though I know you're not home."

A little light reading

Kids' logic is hysterical! The ordinary things in life that they find, like this literature classic, and turn into their favorite tag-along book. Our Little Mouse has been toting along Uncle Tom's Cabin for almost a full week now. It's her go-to book when she's pretending to read in our car or teaching her dolls a lesson.

I love that she has no idea how funny this activity, with this book, seemed to us. I think an adult equivalent would be: Me at the office with a binky pressed to my lips, puzzling co-workers and yet me being unfazed and not recognizing what's so out of touch about it.

This is the kind of photo and kind of event we will look at and remember two decades down the road and all get a good five minute laugh from. And in the present, when Mouse or another of our brood is on a full-tilt meltdown, I try to lighten my mood and reaction by calling to mind the comically quizzical things little kids do. Doesn't always work, but it's worth a try.   

The one about the middle one

Our Little Mouse, all 3-and-a-half-years and 35 pounds of her, is adding some spice to our late summer days lately. Not sure if she is finally giving voice to long-dormant "Terrible Two" stuff, since she was a relative breeze at that age, or if she is making her real identity louder in a vortex of family life that right now often consumes Becky's and my energy, patience, and attention all of the time. Maybe she's acting out to get our attention, which is typically diverted to making sure her baby brother doesn't fall down the stairs, doesn't run outside, doesn't eat an ant, doesn't try to single-handedly begin demoing our old kitchen remains alive?

For the past week-plus, Mouse has been a verbal tour de force. Bossy. Demanding. Intentionally not using manners. Being oh-so sweet to get her way. Unfazed by timeouts. That's right...She practically skipped to a time-out on Friday afternoon! It's like that "Seinfeld" episode "The Opposite," where everyman George does the exact opposite of his usual true self and things start clicking better for him. She's trying out some lip on us. It's all, to this point, highly unusual behavior from Our Mouse.

Last night, our wonderful neighbors babysat all three of our kids so Becky and I could have a night date. We came home at 9:15 p.m. to find our youngest two kiddos still awake and still downstairs. I hustled Mouse back to bed with the consequence of no candy from our bishop at church, and that did the trick (that, and her finally falling asleep 90 minutes+ after her usual bedtime). Our neighbors then told us how Mouse tried to run the babysitting party, bossing and making demands and generally operating in an alternate dimension where adults have no sway and kids get to determine how slowly, how much, and with what utensils (or none) that they eat their dinner.

The kicker line? Our neighbor told us, "I had to break out my old stern teacher voice and say, 'When mommy and daddy are away, your babysitter is in control.' Well, Mouse shot back, 'No, you are not in control! Jesus Christ said that I am in control of me.'"

Mouse also broke out one of her favorite words from her verbal arsenal, telling our neighbors, "You are being inappropriate!" I think this fusilade came after our neighors had the unmitigated gaul (one of my all-time favorite phrases in the entirety of the English language) to remind Mouse to eat her dinner, and take it at the table.

Heaven help us! On a lighter note, as reported earlier this month, Mouse and Moose are indeed forming a tag-team. They silently trotted off during the bedtime routine last night. Our neighbors then heard the dynamic duo squealing in the bathroom, and, upon examination, found Moose thrusting his croc shoe into the toilet repeatedly as his sister cheered him on.

Wonderful!

We have two+ more years of this too, before school breaks the tag-team's all-day, every-day antics in September 2014. Their antics, unlike Mouse's verbal lambastings, are at least often highly humorous and emotionally harmless.

Good times, huh?

Cape get-away

Two weeks ago, we spent the mid-week on the Cape with our three kids. Friends from church have an awesome summer home there, and it was definitely one of the highlights of our summer...this summer, and any summer since we've had kids! These friends' house is right at the edge of a large bay. It was tranquil, fun, and so laid-back. This mini-vacation was just what we needed. And a good lesson learned, too, by going down to the Cape during the week; we avoided all of the skull-crushing weekend traffic.

We spent our time chasing after our kids, listening to our friends talk about their life, grilled, hit two beaches, looked for crabs, avoided poison ivy, watched wildlife on and in the water and on our friends' lawn, took a wonderful boat ride, and just did whatever we wanted to do, whenever. It wasn't rushed. Our kids were well-behaved (just ask our friends) and they all slept through the night there; I think the 9:30 bedtime was key! As time slipped away on Thursday afternoon, I kept wishing for another night and another day, and then a long weekend, at this cottage.

Here are some of the pictoral highlights:

Doesn't Becks look like she belongs on the water?! She steered our friends' boat most of the way across the bay to a tiny peninsula, where the water was so shallow and a feeder stream created a nice drag in which we could float on our backs for a long time. Our girls got a big kick out of that, once they warmed up to the idea of floating without their life jackets on.

Mommy and Mouse steering our friends' boat.  

Day Two, on a nearly-deserted beach at Lowell Holly Reservation in Mashpee. It was a hot, sunny day but we had thankfully had the beach and the trails almost to ourselves. Becky took turns taking all three kids out into the water. I think our kids' enjoyment of being in the water descended in proportion to their age; our oldest, Goose, loved it; her sister, the Mouse, didn't even wade in until about 20 minutes before we left; and Mr. Moo, our 14-month-old, took an hour or so to warm up to the water. He much preferred the land-based teeter-totter or wrecking the sand castles that Mouse and I had made together in the shade.

On Wednesday afternoon, low tide was so low that we all could walk way out in the water. Here, Goose chills out in front of one of the many boats anchored in Waquoit Bay. She was in her element this afternoon, and it was even more enjoyable that our friends invited a neighbor and the neighbor's 5-year-old daughter along for the excursion.

Looking for crabs on Wednesday evening with other friends from church, the Larsen family. We were not successful, but the kids had fun nonetheless. Our girls stood on the rickety wooden dock looking on and wondering what all of the fuss was about.

Our host Larry and Mr. Moo. Larry was such a kind, soft-spoken, and laid-back guy. He could talk about any issue, but mostly wanted to tell us about his own children and comment on our brood. We couldn't help feeling better about our role as parents and the generally good behavior of our three kids after Larry and his wife Shann observed our little troupe and shared their insights and impressions. Sometimes as young parents, you just need an outsider's perspective on your own young children to better appreciate them and take stock of your blessings.

I grilled for about 20 people on Wednesday evening, including two ravenous Larsen boys who could have single-handedly wolfed down all of the burgers were it not for Herr Grillmeister Meisterburger (that would be me)! Moose spent a lot of the grill time in my arms, since he wanted to be wherever I was. He chose me over watching and playing with about seven older kids and four other adults. I felt special. I also felt like I had to keep him 10 feet from the grill, as Mr. Moo loves to lunge for things just out of his reach these days.

Perhaps my favorite photo of the mini-excursion: Mr. Moo, sitting in a just-right-for-his-size, old, weather-worn chair...waving to no one!

Speaking of favorites, this was likely Mouse's least favorite moment of the overnighter: When Larry plucked a live crab from the sand and gently held it in front of her. She was sort of content to look at it from a distance, and only when I put her fingers over mine so we could "touch" the crab together, did she crack a smile.

This was Mouse's preferred activity, swinging on the old rope swing in their front yard.

Wednesday afternoon, about an hour after arriving, we put on our swim suits, took a bath in sunscreen, and walked down to the rickety wooden pier. In two shifts, Larry brought all of us from the pier onto a small outboard boat, which he then spirited over to his larger catboat. I had never heard of the term "catboat" before, but man was it a nice sail!

It was so nice that I could even momentarily ignore Mr. Moo wailing and thrashing about on all fours on the deck of the catboat when we put an oversized (and only remaining) life jacket on him. That was a pathetic sight. He looked and sounded like a wounded, braying donkey! The voyage back to their home was less eventful for Moose: he fell asleep in Becky's arms in the outboard boat, which we pulled behind the catboat.

What a terrific, low-key overnighter. This is how I would love to do mini-excursions with our small kids in the future: somewhere within a 90-minute drive, with lots of natural wonders (and not so heavy on the man-made stuff), good friends, low expectations/no schedule or timetable shuttling us from one activity to another. That's just how our family rolls and functions better. That's why the Memorial Day campout, a great start to our summer, was so fun. It all started there and then, and our time on the Cape was a very memorable, sweet break from the norm.

A favorite spot

 

Last month, Becky and I had a Saturday night date together. I usually love to see July fly by, as the humidity out here sucks (and sucks the life out of a lot of things) and it's one long month of scorching heat and haziness. But this July night was cool and breezy, and being by the harbor made it especially so. It was a perfect night! No heat, no kids (home with our neighbors/babysitters), unlimited time together, and look at all of that greenery! 

We almost had the pier and the long boardwalk to ourselves, but it was also fun to watch the men with their fishing lines. We could also see the people speeding past us 100 or so yards out to see in their boats and planes landing at and taking off from Logan Airport across the way.

This spot is now among my personal favorites. We felt like we had a little corner of heaven that night, where just the two of us could talk about our lives, and about the lives we thought we would be living at our current ages when we were younger. So yeah, although I did not become a foreign affairs correspondent living in central Europe and traveling behind Europe's Iron Curtain (the latter of which fell before my journalist aspirations did), I'm a lucky guy now, luckier and better off. Just great to have a time, a space, and the best person I know to remind me of that.

The babbling Moose

Our 14-month-old little guy, who recently started walking, is now trying to make meaningful words. He imitates the sounds we make for various things, and I want to record those imitative sounds for our family record. Lately, Mr. Moo "says" the following:

"bo" for book. I think he might understand that this word is just for book, as he only uses it when it's reading time at bedtime, or when we're lounging around and there's a pile of books nearby. But then again, I may be reading into things. Parents have that tendency.

"mee" for milk. I faintly heard this one tonight for the first time, so it is definitely premature to say this is a definite "word" for a definite object, to be used only for that object. But he's doing association for it. He uses his "navigator arm," as we call it, to lead us to whatever it is he wants. He thrust his navigator arm toward the refrigerator (going on 5 months now in our dining room--yeah, along with normal dining room attire--as we continue to deliberate on our kitchen remodel) and eeked out this sound, before sucking down two sippy cups of milk tonight.

"da-da" for me, Becky, and most anyone else.

And...that's it, for now!

Budding partners in crime

It was bound to happen. This fearsome twosome have recently hit it off as buddies. We have seen them tickling each other on the living room floor, clapping at each other's antics (as well as their big sister's feats of gymnastic daring-do), and reading books at bedtime. It's all sweet and cute.

But there is a fleeting look of mischief on their faces, I think. Do you see it? Something that's telling me to be on our toes around this tag team in the coming months. For one, Mouse in the pink dress is still spending about 50% of her life in her own comical little world, where nonsensical words, imaginary people, and made-up places create a tapestry of three-year-old merriment. For another, Mr. Moo is learning that cuteness + increasing mobility x increasing speed = a home-bound tornado. I would not be surprised to see them join forces.

For example, Mouse could bring her penchant for coloring our walls with magic markers and Moose  might add his typical-boy love of dirt to manufacture a new concoction, such as dirt all over our interior walls. It will all be in good fun, of course. You all can just sit back and read along to their exploits from afar.

So excited to be walking and able to explore the world in a whole new way!

Mommy-daughter date

Late last month, Becky took Our Dear Goose on a mommy-daughter date to see the Brigham Young University-Idaho dance program perform at Lexington High School. They had a fun time together, and went with our friends Kelly and her daughter. Goose did great staying out (and up) later than usual for her. She was excited to see real dancers, and tried a few steps of her own before they left home for the night (below). Becky reveled in seeing so many of our friends from church at the performance, too.

Meanwhile, I held down the ranch with our other two kiddos...one of whom kept begging "I go! I go! I go!" outside in the street, standing at our front door watching Becky and Goose and friends leave, through much of our dinner, etc. It was a pathetic sight. At one point in Mouse's tears-filled tirade, she was ripping family pictures out of a small, plastic picture folder and hurling the pictures down our front staircase, all while chanting her "I go!" lament. A generous heaping of two bowls of ice cream helped bring her back to reality.

Watching the show! Goose had her own seat, but after a few numbers, she landed on Becky's lap to get a better view of the performers. Man, she looks like a big kid to me in these photos.

Outside after the performance, Goose and her friend C. were clowning around. These two best buddies love hanging out and playing together. Oftentimes, when C. isn't around, both Goose and Mouse will pretend that they are guests at our house, and that both of their names is C. What a fun night for a mommy-daughter date!

And I hope Goose enjoyed her second encounter with her future college (since she wouldn't remember her first BYU experience)!