Bobby's Easter Sunday Summary

This week was a good one. At least the last two days have been really nice.

Yesterday was very busy and we didn't do half the things we planned to do. There was the ward Easter breakfast and a huge baby shower at our house.

It all ended up being a lot of fun. The kids and I hid in the back and watched a movie during the shower.

Manly fort

What is it about seeing your kids play together? I dunno. It's just the coolest, most fulfilling feeling in the world.

Robert asked me to help him build a couch fort, then invited James to join him. He set aside a pillow for James to sit on, gave him a soft toy to play with...

...then proceeded to serve him cake:

This was the perfect scene of brotherly kindness until James leaned over too far and fell face-first on one of the couch's support beams. D'oh! Oh well, maybe James will be a better sitter next time :) I do so love my boys.

Easter Egg Carnage

Our friends invited us to a lovely egg-decorating party this week. Alice decorated a dozen hard boiled eggs with PAAS and I decorated one hollow shell with something slightly resembling the pysanka method. I also tasted clafouti for the first time and fell in love instantly. Bobby and Robert did not attend, unfortunately, due to certain choices Robert had made earlier that day and at dinner :(

Alice couldn't wait to eat all those hard boiled eggs. We brought home a carton full of them and stuck them in the fridge with the promise that we could enjoy some hard boiled eggs for breakfast the next morning. Well, the next morning, Bobby walks into the kitchen where he discovers that not only have Alice and Robert retrieved the eggs on their own, but they have devoured ALL of them and left a blanket of pastel pink and purple egg shells on the table, the chairs, their PJs, and the floor. Robert was the messiest, but he thoughtfully saved some for me:

Mmmmmm. Appetizing. After devouring 11 hard boiled eggs, the kids still ate a full breakfast and begged for a late morning snack. Growth spurt?

Despite the recent snowfall...

...we are experiencing signs of spring. First, the chickens are laying full bore. Second, the cardinals have begun to sing again. I heard them for the first time yesterday afternoon. The sun is out and warm, the snow is melting into rivers, and the birds are just plain singing. My sleepy, wintery brain is squinting in the light and starting to shake off this winter blanket.

Exciting things are coming. A new year. Hope!

Goggle Fun

Alice and Robert received goggles and swim lessons from Grandma Poulson this week. We looooove our spring birthdays. The kids find the goggles a must-have accessory for every occasion: "reading" glasses, "princess" glasses, "superhero" glasses, and, um, toothbrushing glasses:

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, this week was interesting.  Alice was off of school for spring break.  She had lots of play dates, but also was home a lot.  I was not home for most of it so I cannot really comment on a lot of what happened.

My birthday was this week too.  I took Friday off and we went down to the temple.  It was nice, and not that stressful.  Saturday Susan and the kids celebrated my birthday.  They give me breakfast in bed, some presents, they kidnapped me for ice cream, made a special dinner, and we watched a movie.  It was a busy, but fun day.

At work we spent a lot of this week and last week interviewing people. If you know anyone that is a really good computer programmer and wants to/likes to live in the midwest I would be happy to pass on their resume.

On the home front James has started to try and move more.  He has actually rolled himself over a couple of times. He doesn't really know what to do when that happens.  He is OK with it for a little while, but soon starts to feel a bit trapped.

Alice also had a friend get back from a trip to india.  We were watching their guinea pigs while they were away, and they brought back a fancy new outfit for her.  She was very excited about it.

A Blog Post By Alice

Hm mm *giggle* Mooooooom. Mmmmm. Ummmm. Let me think. Hey! Mommy. Emerson's tongue is the purplest. Boo hoo. She was eating blueberries a lot. Well.

(What do you want to say about Emerson coming over?)

Well, she is fun, but not super fun.

(What did you play?)

Mmmmm

(I heard you playing "bus". You guys were riding a bus.)

Were we? Oh yeah. That wasn't all we were playing.

(Why were you eating blueberries?)

It was for dinner! We had pancakes for dinner!

(How is Emerson fun?)

I had her as a friend since preschool.

(Tell me three more things.)

Mmmm. Um. I love Emerson.
I liked the dinner.
I like Emerson.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

I don't really have a lot to say.  Susan already talked about the party, and that is the majority of things that happened this week.

Friend Party

Alice's friend party went like this today:

1 Gam
2 Free time
3 Gine pig seshin
4 Wash hans
5 Ise crem sabwichis
6 Free paye
7 Pinyotu
8 Opstukl Kors
9 Free playe
10 go home

Guests had all arrived by 1:20 pm and she ran us through the program at lightning speed: pin the crown on the princess game, free time, guinea pig petting/holding session, wash hands, ice cream sandwiches, free play, pinata, obstacle course, and even more free play. We were at #9 by 2pm and had a whole hour to play before guests started leaving. She had a riot. There's nothing so invigorating to this girl as being the center of attention and in charge ;)

Bobby and I are still scratching our heads about where she gets all this extroverted energy.

Alice is 6!

Alice turned six this week! She's such a different girl from who she was last year. Kindergarten seems to have accelerated her aging, or maybe it's just having a REAL baby in the house for comparison that makes her seem so old.

 We weren't going to have her family party until Sunday, but then her actual birthday didn't have ANYTHING planned on it, which seemed lame and sad (flashback!), so she and I decided last-minute to make the party happen that day. It worked well because she had selected burritos for her birthday dinner, which left just enough time that afternoon to make and decorate a cake. She couldn't have been more thrilled with the whole process. Alice selected a vanilla layer cake with rich, chocolate icing (we loooooove our Betty Crocker cookbook!). She wanted to use the icing bag herself, but it was taking WAY too long (for all of us) and Bobby took over the squeezing while Alice directed.

How do you like my action shot? I'm quite proud of it:

Bobby and I received a silver-plated bridal cake cutting set for our wedding 11 years ago. In my spring cleaning phase this year, I was about to put it into the Goodwill box, but Alice begged to rescue it. Bobby and I looked at her incredulously and asked, "How and when on EARTH are we ever going to use this?" Alice didn't miss a beat, "For birthday cakes!" Well, she had a point. Maybe it could become something special and fun that we use regularly, but not too regularly. Five times a year? That's my kind of "useful heirloom." Here's Bobby cutting and serving the first birthday cake in silver-plated style. Again, Alice was thrilled:

After one taste, Robert decided then and there that his birthday cake would have chocolate icing on it just like this one.

Happy Birthday, Alice! We don't spend as much time together as we used to. Sometimes I see you working or playing and I wonder, "Who is this little lady these days?" You've worked hard this year trying to get along with Robert. You've stepped up to help with James, too. I see you struggle with balancing wants and needs, but you never struggle finding friends or being yourself. I admire that about you. You can talk to any adult for any amount of time on any subject...as long as the subject is you ;) You continue to be conscientious and attentive to subtle social cues. You are aware of so much more than I give you credit for. It's not easy growing up the eldest child. You and I are going through a whole bunch of "firsts" together. We'll figure this out eventually. 

Thanks for changing my entire life, Girlie.

A Blog Post by Buddy (with prompting)

What do you want to say about your pinkeye?
A doctor put his hand on my head.

Why did he do that?
Because I did.

What is your name?
Robert.

What do you like to play?
Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Who do you like to play with?
Caleb

What did we do for Family Home Evening last night?
We ate brownies and played Battleship.

What do you want to do today? What are some things you want to play today?
(while perusing a new library book)
Ummmm, nothing.

Nothing?
No.

A Blog Post By Alice

I had a wonderful day. One part was wrong. The part that was wrong was in the computer lab. Type To Learn was boring. When I started and then I finished, ummm, I accidentally pushed a different button *sigh* *giggle* and it got me into a different place that I should not do. It was an accident, you should know. It was bad because I had to start over and over and over. Love, Alice.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has felt like a long one.  But it was probably just the last few days that were long.  Yesterday was actually a very good day.  There were lots of things to do to keep us busy, but not so many that we felt overwhelmed.

Robert had his gymnastics class.  After that we went straight to a cousin's birthday party.  She picked McDonalds as the place for the party.  The kids really liked it.

Today, was just a busy day.  With the time change I had to get up earlier.  It wasn't horrible  just not what I wanted.  All of the meetings I had went long, so I ended up being dressed up for the past 12 hours, and in meetings for at least 9 of those 12 hours.  Susan has been wonderful about it.  I know it is very stressful for her to have yet another day with the kids and I am not there to help.

High Pants

When we're hanging out at home, Buddy likes to wear "high pants" and often accessorizes with a "hat" (i.e. more pants). Here he is showing off his new favorite book, Dr. Seuss's ABC's, which is no longer silly enough to be read straight. He requests that each letter be changed to a different/silly letter so all the words sound silly, too (S=F, so "Filly Fammy Flick fipped fix fodas and got fick, fick, fick.")

Meaty Mitts

James' hands don't look like I remember his siblings' hands looking at this age. Are his thumbs shorter? I can't figure it out. I just hold those warm, moist digits and stare...so. dang. cute.

I owe my sister an apology...

...my foodie sister...the one who exposed me to stinky cheese and hoity-toity olives and lemon curd. We were roommates for a few years, we dreamed of an urban farm life together, and we bonded over family history research, but I still couldn't believe her that goat cheese and herbal teas were worth consuming.

I'm here to confess, "I've finally seen the light! I'm sorry I doubted your tastes for so long."

An excellent experience at a local foodie restaurant, Radio Maria, showed me that goat cheese could be vibrant and savory and non-goaty. It made me wonder where on earth the goat-y cheese I had tried earlier in life had came from. I swear, my first experience with goat cheese tasted like I was licking a goat. Can you see why I was repelled? But at Radio Maria, it was a dish very similar to this one that actually convinced me to buy goat cheese on my own and attempt it at home. RM serves it with a soft-fried egg on top. Oh. my. heavens. With our homegrown eggs and some super fresh Prairie Fruits chevre, it's my favorite...I'm off dairy while nursing James, but now I make an exception for small doses of goat cheese. Mmmmmm.

And then there's herbal tea: watery, yucky stuff that never tasted strong enough to drink. Grassy. Minty (mint flavors give me the impression of eating/drinking spit from someone who's just chewed mint gum. I don't know where that horrible idea came from, but it has stuck. I can't enjoy mint in most of its forms.) Ugh. Anyway, when my sister visited me even as recently as last December, she enjoyed her steaming hot cups of lemon ginger tea and I longed to love tea like that. Cocoa is not a choice for me while I'm nursing, so I have consumed oodles of super-sweet instant cider this winter. I've grown tired of it. It's SO sweet. The kids want it every time, too (expensive! too many sugary drinks for kids!). I wanted something warm and flavorful to savor that the kids wouldn't hound me about.

I decided to put myself through herbal tea boot camp. I drank 2-3 cups of herbal tea every day, delicious or not, for a week. By the end, I decided that I liked it kinda sweet (2 tsp of sugar per cup, compared to 4 tsp of sugar in the instant cider), but not sweet enough to appeal to the kids. I drank through the rest of Heidi's lemon ginger tea and flew through a box of Celestial Seasoning's Fruit Sampler. Now I've got Apple Cinnamon Spice and Raspberry Zinger on-hand. Yes, they're still fruity teas, which is kinda like riding with training wheels in the herbal tea world, but I'm making progress. I've been able to reduce my sugar preference to 1.5 teaspoons. Yes, still sweet, but I'm to the point where I actually enjoy it, look forward to it, and savor it.

Goat cheese and herbal teas...delicious! What's next, Heidi?

That boy!

So, I think I finally figured something out about Robert: it's important to him to accomplish a new skill on his own, but he finds repetition tedious. Once he's attained a certain level of proficiency, he doesn't want to do it that way again. Ever. He's always changing the words to songs. He's also making up new words in daily conversation that sound like the words he really wants to say (it's great for rhyming practice, but freakishly annoying some days..."I'm borry, Mommy. I bon't moo it abenn." Seriously?!). I have him practice with scissors along curved lines and he decides he will cut exactly 1/4 inch ABOVE the last curve. It's a perfect curve, just not on the line.

And today, after quiet time, he shows me this cool new way to play with the slide:

A Blog Post from Alice

Today I have a stomach ache. I ate too much lemon curd. I just don't like this stomach ache! This week, I'm going to a friend's birthday party. I mean a cousin. My belly still hurts. March 7th, 2013, we had a double snack: fruit snacks and granola bars.

Emerson was not here today! Ella was. I played with Mamie on a big, big, big, big, big, big, big snow pile! We sledded. We had fun. We pretended it was a polar bear and I made a little basket for food. Mamie did the same.

Today, we made a paper for Mother's Day. I'm not allowed to tell you. I'll tell you later when I get it.

Need More Sleep

Last night, I hear James crying and I lunge over to catch him before he falls off the side of our bed. Then I hear a deep, exasperated voice say, "What are you doing?!" I suddenly realize that I've got Bobby's arm in a death grip and I really don't know where I am or what I'm doing, "Sorry, I'm confused."

I hear another cry from James in his crib in the other room and I regain my senses. I grope down the dark hall to take care of his needs.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens to me when the babe wakes up 2-3 times a night for three nights in a row (instead of just once a night) and I'm not napping during the day to make up for it. I go crazy. I hallucinate. The rest of the night is filled with psychedelic dreams and strange visions.

Poor Bobby. To be woken up so suddenly, so violently, by a crazy lady...he let me sleep in this morning :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

I don't have too much to report this week. Everyone is doing OK.  We are slowly recovering from our sicknesses.  I think we are fairly close to being normal again.  This weekend has been a nice one. Friday we went to a friend's house for dinner.  Saturday was a busy day, but not too busy.  We went to read across america again this year.  Each of the kids enjoyed it and got a new book.  Everyone then took a break.  This week is stake conference which means that our schedule is rather different.  I get to sit with Susan and the kids durring church, and I get to be home in the morning.

This morning we decided that we were going to make "puffy oven pancake" for breakfast.  It really is just a giant turnover.  Well the kids wanted to have sliced strawberries on it, so I put the kids at the dining room table to slice strawberries, while I made breakfast.  Well when I was done I went to check on the kids and what did I find. A tiny bowl of cut up strawberries.  About 4 strawberries worth.  They had "tasted" about a pound of strawberries worth.  Alice had a meltdown fit when I told her that she was done with strawberries for the rest of the day.  Oh well that is life.