More Update, I Guess

One of the peculiarities I've noticed about Joshua is that he takes a long, long time to process things that happen that are out of the ordinary.  A good example of this comes from when Hyrum likes to pick on people in the morning, and often that person he chooses to pick on is Joshua.  Sometimes he does it because he's in a hurry to get out the door, but what he doesn't realize is that this often makes things worse.  When Hyrum does him wrong he needs time to process it.  That means that he physically cannot get his shoes and coat on quickly.  And then he may talk through it over and over all the way to school.  Either way, he sits and talks through it for at least 5 minutes before he can get out of the car.  "Hyrum shouldn't do that.  I don't like it when Hyrum does that.  He's careless when he does that.  He shouldn't do that."  All I can do is patiently try to reassure him and just listen.  And heaven forbid we should be running late already like we were this morning!  By the time he got out of the car he only had 5 minutes for breakfast.

I forgot to mention in my weekly email update yesterday that Jeremy still has one project left.  A few weeks ago I mentioned that there was a discrepancy because the school in France decided their courses this summer would only cover 11 credits.  But Jeremy needed 12 to graduate.  So he has to make up the one credit with a project that has been approved by SUU.  He'll be working with the Aquatic Center, where he worked when we first moved here.  He's going to go over their numbers to try to see what advertising worked best, and he'll write up a proposal for them.  The problem he's found is that they haven't been consistent in their advertising.  That will make it hard.  But this is a project he's really interested in, and I can tell that he wants to help.  I'm sure he'll do fine.  He has to have it done by the end of the summer, but it would be best to have it done before he leaves for France.  Busy, busy.

Jill, the Little Ham

This evening there was a Community Family Night at the high school.  They had bouncy houses for kids ages 6-12 (mine four oldest are 6-11 - phew!) and day care provided by Head Start for kids 3-5 (my youngest are too young - dang it!)  So after we got our piece of pizza and picked up free pens and such at the different booths I dropped the oldest off at the bouncy houses while I went to hear the speaker.  The keynote speaker turned out to be the one and only Richard Eyre of Joy School fame.  He gave such a great speech.  I really enjoyed it. 

But he also ran a little longer than he was supposed to and Jill and Timmy got very restless.  Well, right near the end Jill couldn't stand it anymore.  After many attempts to get away from me and get on the stage, she finally succeeded.  Before I knew it she was running in circles behind the speaker.  I couldn't get her to come back to me, and I was not about to go grab her while still carrying Timmy.  I just wanted to crawl under a rock.  I was so embarrassed.

The speaker turned around and tried to catch her, but his mic cord was too short.  He did comment on how cute she was with her little "tap shoes" (her pink jellies).  Somebody finally helped me get her. 

Well, it was all horribly embarrassing, but, gosh darn it, it left me with a question:  why in the world did I not grab my camera out of my purse and take a picture?!  After all, when am I ever going to let her out of her stroller in a public place again?

Children

Well, today is DIBELS testing at school.  (Drawing Illustrations Based on Educational Literature... uh... at School!  Just kidding.  It really means Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.  And, yes, I did just copy and paste that from Wikipedia because I didn't really remember.)  Anyway, it should be interesting.  My boys are all good readers, and it has been really fun to watch Michael learning to read this year.  He blows me away every time it's his turn to read scriptures.  He can read some pretty big words!

And know what else blows me away?  Every time I remember what grades Hyrum and Joshua are just about to complete I just can't believe it.  Hyrum's finishing 5th grade and Joshua's finishing 4th!  When did this happen?!  I can't believe it.

I gave the boys all haircuts on Saturday.  Joshua (having the stoic mind that he does) argued with me the entire time I was cutting his hair, trying to convince me that it looked better and "more manly" longer.  Yes, those were his exact words.  Good golly.  And then yesterday after church he sidled up to me and lowered his voice as he told me that his haircut looks more manly than Hyrum's.  He also mentioned that on Saturday at the pool he did a pull-up, and that he wore his shirt unbuttoned.  And both of those things, obviously, make him more manly than Hyrum.  Where did this all come from?!  Silly boy!  Uh, I mean manly boy!


In other news, Jeremy leaves for Paris in 3 weeks and 2 days.  I'm trying hard not to think about it, but I still want him to go.

Jill

I've been laughing about this picture of Jill for a few days, and I just need to share it. It is priceless. She did put her underwear on herself (ha, ha!), and she also decided to brush her own hair while she was on the toilet, and then she forgot that the brush was even there for a few hours. And here she is, chopping pretzel sticks on the bench. She will hate me for sharing when she's a teenager, but for now, how could I not share?!

Timmy and Joshua

Timmy has learned to say a few more words.  He was saying "bunny" this morning and holding Jill's bunny.  Today I sat him on my lap to get a bite of my food, and he turned his head and said no.  Then it was like a light went on in his head and he suddenly understood what no meant, so he smiled big and kept repeating it and throwing in a bunch of gibberish for good measure. 

Another thing Timmy has learned to say is, "Me! Me! Me! Me!"  Except that when he says it he squishes it together so it's more like, "Mememememe!"  He says it when he wants something.  He points his hand in the direction of whatever he wants (usually water - he asks for that a lot) and makes the sign for milk while exclaiming his little exclamation.  He also says "cracker." (Cah-cah-cah-cah.)

He's also getting very clever.  I don't give him cereal in his milk anymore because he just dumps it out.  This morning his brother and sister got cereal to eat.  I gave Timmy pretzels becaue I didn't want cornflakes all over the floor again.  But the little fella wouldn't stand for that.  He ran back in the living room exclaiming, "Mememememe!" until I got him a bowl of cornflakes too.

And Timmy has been drooling a lot and has been a little more fussy than usual.  Maybe he's teething at the same time that he's dealing with effects from his shots almost a week ago.  I don't know, but I don't dare try to check for new teeth trying to come in.  Every time I do he immediately bites my finger, and he bites hard!  Of course he can't just open his mouth for me to look.  Silly boy!  And lately, his favorite pasttime while I'm at the computer is to climb up on the chair and squeeze his little self behind me and then chew on/yank on my hair.  No wonder it's in such sorry shape lately!  Ow!

Just a minute ago Jeremy was lifting weights a bit in the living room, and when he was done Timmy started grunting too and kind of popping up from bending his knees.  Cute fella. :)

In other news, Joshua came home from school yesterday and told me that his testing for AS started!  He said the guy that does it is really nice and it sounds like it's been a good experience so far.  And he said that he'll get a reward when he's done.  The proctor said that not everybody gets a reward, but that Joshua will.  He was so pleased.  We've prayed for this day to come!  His tests will continue today.  I honestly don't know where it leads from here, but I'm thankful to at least be on the path.  I feel that a lot of good will come of this.

P.S. Joshua did more testing yesterday, and I think he's done with that portion of this process.  He said his reward was 10 mustang bucks.  (Their school mascot is a mustang, and they get mustang bucks for doing good things in school, like turning in homework and stuff.  Then they can spend them at the mustang market or save up for big things like the end-of-the-year party.)  He was pretty pleased and liked the knowledge that it didn't matter if he got anything wrong on these tests.

Today

It has been such a busy day!  I've been on the run most of the day.  There has just been so much to do.  A couple of those things to do took place at the Health Department.  We picked up checks from WIC, and then we moved on to another part of the Health Department to ask about shots for Timmy and Jill.  It turned out that Jill doesn't need any, but Timmy needed 5.  They happened to have an opening in the schedule, so I took it.  I figured I was there anyway.  So I chased Jill around and around while we waited.  The poor girl was so, so tired.  She was being naughty, but I could tell it was just because she was tired.  She and Timmy almost escaped from the building several times.  Thank heavens you have to go through 2 doors to get outside instead of just one!  And Jill also decided that after I took off her jacket she needed to strip down completely.  She took off her shoes and socks and eventually got her shirt off too.  Stripper!  However, we survived the wait.

Then the lady took us back to the room and sat Jill down with some books.  She talked to me a lot about the shots before, during, and after giving them.  I've never received so much info. except in the sheets they give you that talk about the different shots.  I liked it a lot better this way.  Anyway, she gave Timmy his five pokes - 2 in one leg, and then one in the other leg and one in each arm.  Poor little fella.  He started crying like he was so, so emotionally wounded as soon as he got the first poke.  I held him close and tried to calm him, but it hurt and he kept getting poked.  When he was all done I turned him so I could give him a hug, and he hugged me tight around the neck and just kept crying.  Poor little guy.  By the time we left the room he wasn't crying, but he was still whimpering and clinging tight to me.  He did not like it when I put him in his car seat again. 

Jilly carried the jackets for me, and she also got a sticker.  The lady gave her one to give to Timmy later.  She said, "I think this is Ernie.  Do you want to hold this Ernie sticker for you brother until he feels better?"  It wasn't Ernie.  It was Bert.  But I didn't say so. ;)

We also had scouts today.  We started building bird houses for Mother's Day.  I helped Benji.  He was determined to finish the whole thing in one sitting, but we didn't have time.  Jill and Timmy tried to help too.  Jill found the front of one and tried to hammer a peg into it, and Timmy kept grabbing nails out of the nail bucket.  So helpful!

We have one hour between the time we get home from Benji's scouts and time for Joshua's scouts.  I hurried and made spaghetti and we jumped in the car again to take Joshua.  And in just a few more minutes it'll be time to go get him.

One other thing I did today was meet Jeremy for lunch at SUU.  He had another speaker and luncheon there, so I took the 3 younger kiddos to my visiting teacher's house and met Jeremy for the lunch.  The speaker was Dian Thomas, and, goodness, I liked her!  I really wished that I could sit and chat with her one-on-one because she was so interested in everybody in the room and so interesting to listen to.  She talked about how to write an article and a lot about how to promote yourself.  And she talked a little about how you can promote yourself while still being the humble person our faith requires.  I thought that was interesting.  She has written some books and been on different TV shows.  I walked out of there feeling inspired.  It was just so neat.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't sad about the possibility of moving instead of being able to go for my degree here.  I think I've been accepted to the university, and the thought is scary but exciting.  I was really looking forward to the possibility.  But the reality is that we're going to need a job when Jeremy gets back from Paris, and who knows where that will take us?  I really shouldn't have gotten so excited about the idea in the first place, but it's exciting to have something to look forward to.  You all should know by now that I just love having little projects.  I've always got something going.  This was a project I was looking forward to.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Timmy

Timmy is really getting big.  Just last night I was snuggling with him in bed, and I was amazed at how tall he's getting.  And then this morning he was tall enough to reach not only the counter top but the handle of the waffle iron on it. 

He has learned to unscrew lids.  He likes to climb up on the front of his high chair and then stay there to eat his food, clinging to the tray.  Papa calls it "eating adventurer style."

Timmy likes to climb on my computer chair while I'm sitting on it.  He slithers his little body in behind me and chews on my hair.  He's also been talking more, but most of his talking is babbling.  He will turn to face me and babble a long old shpeel of who knows what, just like Hyrum used to do.  He's a really happy guy most of the time and his babbling is full of happy, excited sounds.

Spring has sprung, though the weather man has not been told.  We got snow yesterday and it's freezing cold right now.  At least the snow is melting.

I don't think I mentioned before, but we have polygamists somewhere around here.  I see them at Wal-Mart now and then.  I didn't see any all winter, but they appear to be coming out of hiding now that spring is coming.  They kind of fascinate me.  Usually I just see the women.  They have long dresses with long sleeves, all one color.  I don't think any of their cloth ever has any kind of print on it.  They all have long hair bound up in loose braids.  Every now and then they have their older daughters and sons with them.  And they seem like really nice people.  It's funny seeing those ladies in old-fashioned garb talking on cell phones, though.

Yesterday we had frog eye salad with our dinner.  It seemed appropriate for Conference, and Joshua insisted that we have it.  Before you gag your own eyeballs out, let me explaing.  Frog eye salad just has little round noodles that look a little like tiny eyeballs.  It also has Cool Whip, vanilla pudding, milk, mandarin oranges, and pineapple.  It's pretty darn yummy.  I wouldn't mind making that again, but I've kind of decided I need to cut down on the sugar and pineapple in it.  Sugar bothers Jeremy and me and pineapple hurts our tongues.  We must be getting old - aches and pains.

As we were finishing up dinner I mentioned to the kiddos that we needed to Skype grandma.  That's what we do on Sunday.  Jill must have heard me because she got down from the table, went over to my computer, opened Skype, and called grandma!  Holy cow!  I didn't know she could figure all that out!  We still needed to hook up our camera and try again, but she did it!  And Joe was there to answer! :)