Alice sticks her fingers in her mouth and laughs, "I Memmer." She's pretending to be her friend Spencer J who sucks his fingers. Then she tells me I'm Memmer's mommy. This is the first time I've witnessed her role-playing as someone else I know.
When something is out of reach, Alice tells us it is "far, far, away." That gets the Christmas carol "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain" stuck in my head every time. I sang the entire first verse to her once and she got bothered at the end saying, "Will's mommy! Will's mommy!" I then realized the last line of the carol goes, "Peace on earth, good will to men" and she thought I was playing the name game again. She wanted Will's mommy to be good the next time.
Alice skinned her knee several weeks ago and she would almost burst into tears every time she saw the scab again, even when it was clearly healing well without infection. Perhaps it was the IDEA of being hurt that caused such emotional pain? Anyway, the scab healed and the next couple times she saw her knee without the scab she proclaimed, "Ouchie all gone!" Then one day she told the whole story...
"Ah gone ouchie! Ayiss 'whoa'. Rye. Deet-do Mommy Daddy. Hudt. Ah gone ouchie. Happy Ayiss happy!"
translation: All gone ouchie! Alice fall. Cry. Mommy Daddy hold me. Hug. All gone ouchie. Happy Alice!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunny CA with the Garners
[caption id="attachment_550" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rachel and me having a grand old time at Chuck E Cheese's place. I stole this picture from her Facebook page. Chuck E. drew it for us."]
[/caption]
Just got back from a week in sunny, warm, and green northern California. As Bobby mentioned in his last Sunday Summary, we spent a week with our good friends the Garners. They moved out there a year ago to take a job with Clorox and our family just hasn't been the same since. It was a real treat to get together again. I could give a day-to-day accounting of what we did, but that's not what I'm really going to remember about the trip. The following is what I don't want to forget:
They gave us Nathan's room and crib and dresser. I don't normally unpack my suitcase while traveling...it has always seemed like an unnecessary step. This time, though, I was eager to unpack like I was staying forever. Having a laundry basket was an unexpectedly delightful and comfortable perk. So much like home.
Home canned cherries, peaches, apricots, and jam. Rachel doesn't can much herself (yet!) but I have enjoyed many, many delicious homemade meals with her family that almost always included some form of home canned produce. Rachel and mushicots are inseparably connected in my memory. She also makes all her own bread these days, and you can't beat fresh bread.
Grocery shopping, walking to pick up Daniel from the bus stop, T-ball practices, kicking a soccer ball around the backyard, Chuck E Cheese, discussions on faith, playing Settlers of Catan, reading stories to the boys, Nathan's infectious smile, Joshua's boundless energy (and love), Daniel's eagerness to question, visiting the Oakland temple, Bobby showing so much love to all the kids, senseless knock-knock jokes, stake conference, fruit stand oranges, the smell of almond trees in bloom, heaps of food and fun and love at Holly and Drew and Ben's house, pythons terrifying natives at lightning fast speed, Alice murmuring in her sleep, late night discussions figuring out life and relationships and parenthood, and more laughter than I've felt in a long time. Just like old times.
Most of all, I don't want to forget that leaving again hurt almost as bad as it did the first time. I tend to forget those kinds of emotional things, which eventually leads me conclude that the whole situation was different...less meaningful, less important, less life-changing...than it really was. I don't want to forget that this time.
[/caption]Just got back from a week in sunny, warm, and green northern California. As Bobby mentioned in his last Sunday Summary, we spent a week with our good friends the Garners. They moved out there a year ago to take a job with Clorox and our family just hasn't been the same since. It was a real treat to get together again. I could give a day-to-day accounting of what we did, but that's not what I'm really going to remember about the trip. The following is what I don't want to forget:
They gave us Nathan's room and crib and dresser. I don't normally unpack my suitcase while traveling...it has always seemed like an unnecessary step. This time, though, I was eager to unpack like I was staying forever. Having a laundry basket was an unexpectedly delightful and comfortable perk. So much like home.
Home canned cherries, peaches, apricots, and jam. Rachel doesn't can much herself (yet!) but I have enjoyed many, many delicious homemade meals with her family that almost always included some form of home canned produce. Rachel and mushicots are inseparably connected in my memory. She also makes all her own bread these days, and you can't beat fresh bread.
Grocery shopping, walking to pick up Daniel from the bus stop, T-ball practices, kicking a soccer ball around the backyard, Chuck E Cheese, discussions on faith, playing Settlers of Catan, reading stories to the boys, Nathan's infectious smile, Joshua's boundless energy (and love), Daniel's eagerness to question, visiting the Oakland temple, Bobby showing so much love to all the kids, senseless knock-knock jokes, stake conference, fruit stand oranges, the smell of almond trees in bloom, heaps of food and fun and love at Holly and Drew and Ben's house, pythons terrifying natives at lightning fast speed, Alice murmuring in her sleep, late night discussions figuring out life and relationships and parenthood, and more laughter than I've felt in a long time. Just like old times.
Most of all, I don't want to forget that leaving again hurt almost as bad as it did the first time. I tend to forget those kinds of emotional things, which eventually leads me conclude that the whole situation was different...less meaningful, less important, less life-changing...than it really was. I don't want to forget that this time.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Bobby's Sunday Summary
This has been a rather interesting week. The first half of the week was in Illinois getting ready to travel. Wednesday was spent flying to CA. It was not a fun experience. The plane ride itself was not that bad. In fact it would have been rather pleasant except an hour into the first leg of the flight, to Las Vegas, Alice coughed a little bit too much and lost all of the contents of her stomach onto my shirt. The flight attendants were very nice. They washed out Alice's clothes and set them to try under the fans, which worked out very well. I did not have an extra shirt so I ended up wearing my jacket for the rest of the flight. Once in Las Vegas, I was able to find a shirt on sale and changed.
So far California has been a lot of fun. Pictures are coming. We went to a children's museum and a park. Alice has been getting a lot more daring. She climbed up a slide on her own and climbed up a ladder too. She has had a lot of fun playing with her friends here. And ate some really good mexican food. Something that is very very difficult to find at home.
So far California has been a lot of fun. Pictures are coming. We went to a children's museum and a park. Alice has been getting a lot more daring. She climbed up a slide on her own and climbed up a ladder too. She has had a lot of fun playing with her friends here. And ate some really good mexican food. Something that is very very difficult to find at home.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
[Insert name here] singing
Some new creations from Alice's "choose your own adventure" singing:
"Spencer had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb."
"We wish you a Spencer Bair Christmas, we wish you a Spencer Bair Christmas"
"Red and yellow and pink and green...I can sing a rainbow" somehow turns into "Red and black and red and red...I can sing a coral snake"
Our trip to St. Louis this weekend was excellent. We swapped babysitting with the Krogels. I took Alice (1.9y), Justin (2.75y), and baby Esther (5mo) to the Magic House which is an amazing children's science museum only 10 minutes from the temple (and admission was free, thanks to a reciprocal agreement with our little science museum in Urbana). It was PACKED! There was hardly room to play. Both toddlers were very well-behaved, though, and happy to play with the same thing at the same time for 90 minutes. A miracle in itself! Esther hung out in her carrier and enjoyed watching all the action. Unfortunately for the grandparents and future posterity, it was nigh unto impossible to take pictures while navigating the hot, noisy crowd and juggling a baby carrier and three winter coats. I'll do better next time :)
"Spencer had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb."
"We wish you a Spencer Bair Christmas, we wish you a Spencer Bair Christmas"
"Red and yellow and pink and green...I can sing a rainbow" somehow turns into "Red and black and red and red...I can sing a coral snake"
Our trip to St. Louis this weekend was excellent. We swapped babysitting with the Krogels. I took Alice (1.9y), Justin (2.75y), and baby Esther (5mo) to the Magic House which is an amazing children's science museum only 10 minutes from the temple (and admission was free, thanks to a reciprocal agreement with our little science museum in Urbana). It was PACKED! There was hardly room to play. Both toddlers were very well-behaved, though, and happy to play with the same thing at the same time for 90 minutes. A miracle in itself! Esther hung out in her carrier and enjoyed watching all the action. Unfortunately for the grandparents and future posterity, it was nigh unto impossible to take pictures while navigating the hot, noisy crowd and juggling a baby carrier and three winter coats. I'll do better next time :)
Bobby's Sunday Summary
This week was a rather busy one, or maybe it just felt like a really busy one. I have a project due on Tuesday. It is essentially done, but I still need to finish testing it. The real problem with that is that it takes well over an hour to test it each time, so it is rather time consuming to try and get anything done.
Yesterday we went to the temple. It was a very long day, but a good one. On the way down we heard a very interesting song on the radio. It was from the “annoying music show” I am not sure how it was part of their valentines special, but it was Taco Bell’s Cannon
Susan will be posting to the blog some more of the musical fun we had on the way back though.
Yesterday we went to the temple. It was a very long day, but a good one. On the way down we heard a very interesting song on the radio. It was from the “annoying music show” I am not sure how it was part of their valentines special, but it was Taco Bell’s Cannon
Susan will be posting to the blog some more of the musical fun we had on the way back though.
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