Christmas kindness

I love gruff old men that are soft at heart.  I went to get our two weeks worth of food... and the guy helping me saw that we had asked for a turkey.  He seemed like a stand offish kind of man, and not very openly friendly... but he got all concerned that we were getting a Christmas turkey without any of the dressings like yams, pumkin pie filling, olives, stuffing, etc... so this tough little old man revised my paper without thinking twice about it and I walked out with the unexpected gift of the love and concern of a little old man for a jobless family of four during the holiday season.  Whether I needed the dressings or not, I feel like I needed that love and am grateful for the service that he gave.

Merry Christmas all!

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone that I may or may not see in the next little while.  Love you all!

It's official

Sammy officially sits by himself.  He has been for a couple of weeks but it's only been in the last couple of days that I dare leave him sitting on his own for more than a few seconds.  Now he cries if he's laying instead of sitting and very rarely takes a nose dive into the carpet that it's worthy of a blog entry.  His favorite thing to do is sit in the middle of the room and crinkle any paper he can get his hands on.

Dry hands

Like many other people, Jer and I get very dry hands during the cold seasons... to the point that they crack and bleed.  Poor Ada inherited our dryness I guess because her hands have been so sore and dry that I have to make sure she has lotion on them every night.  What makes it worse is that she's been potty training, so all of us have been washing our hands 6-10 extra times a day... ouch. 

I was showing Ada how my hand had split and was starting to bleed and she looked at me with her most serious look, and said in her most seriously sad voice..."Poor mommy!"  Then I showed her that her hands were doing the same thing.... and she said,"Poor Ada!"

Wimp or medical future?

Ada is a wimp.  I mean it.  She falls or drops something and she cries.  But the ironic thing is that she can get cut and is bleeding all over and all she does is wipe it on her shirt and keep doing what she was doing.  Hmmm.... (she broke a Christmas ornament and was more worried about picking up all the pieces of the ornament than she was about the blood or the fact that she had cut herself.)

She's an Actor

Jer and I were watching the movie Stardust.  It's a fun but cheesy movie with a really neat soundtrack... but it was pretty funny to watch Ada's reaction to it since she's been paying a lot more attention to what's going on in movies.  At the part that they all drink a toast and some of them fall down dead because of poison Ada turns to me and says... "Mommy, he said... Aghhhhh." while she clutched her throat and then fell over onto the floor.  I couldn't stop laughing and had to have her do it again for Jer.  It was hilarious and I think Becca especially will enjoy this post.

My little Helper

It's so hard to get mad at your toddler for trying to help.

I was watching my friend's kids while she took her finals at school.  That meant that I had 4 kids ages 3 and under most of the afternoon.  It was fun... and busy.  It was funny to watch Ada and Lizzie eat "silly noodles" and blow raspberries at each other... But then the fun started.  Sammy finished his bottle and was ready for his nap... and James was hungry but he NEVER lets me feed him.  He let me give him bottles months ago, but the last few times that I've watched him he won't eat until his mom comes back... he just cries.  That means that he was crying, and Sammy was crying and the girls were making a mess.  I went to put Sammy to bed and Lizzie came upstairs to go potty.  She washed her hands and then peed in the middle of the bathroom floor.  While I tried to take care of that I went to get her spare clothes from the diaper bag and caught Ada trying to help James.  She had seen me trying to feed him some applesauce... so when he had kept crying she had climbed onto the table, retrieved the applesauce, and then had proceeded to try to feed him.  Wow what a mess!  He had applesauce all over his face from his nose on down... all over his clothes, the blanket he was laying on, and on the kitchen floor.  When I walked in, Ada just looked at me like... look mom, I'm helping.  After saving James from my all too willing to help toddler I went back upstairs to finish helping Lizzie and I decided that Ada needed to come upstairs too.  I don't think I'll trust her with crying babies for a little while.

Remembering

I was just remembering some of the cute things that Ada has done in the last little bit.

While playing the organ for church... Ada usually is my biggest supporter.  Not only does she sit and sing loudly so that I can hear her... wave at me and smile... but she also has said things like, "Good job mom!"

Jer was eating some Reeses Pieces and Ada came up and asked to have some... "I want some, please daddy, I want some." All the while hugging his arm and looking up at him with her big brown eyes.

Asking to wear skirts so she can dance. 

Looking at us from the back of the car... I asked her what she wanted to do... she says, "I want to dance." (Kind of hard to do with the seat belt on).

Everytime Sammy grabs something and stuffs it in his mouth she tells him,"No Sammy, no!"

And here's one for Sammy.  He was sitting on the floor with my mom sitting behind him... He lunges at her knee and says what sounded like, "HiYah!" and slobbered all over her.

Sammy has also discovered how to 'flub'.  You know when you blow on a baby's belly and it makes funny sounds?  He does it to my arm or leg... whatever he can get a hold of.

Family Pictures

We just got our family pictures taken... Yay and yuck... I hate looking at myself in pictures... but everyone else is really cute!  Becca did a marvellous job too... especially considering that it was freezing, everyones noses were red and running, and it had just started to snow.  And that 5 minutes before Ada had been crying and I tried doing her hair several times and she just messed it up every time... grrrr.  Here are some of the ones that I really like. I didn't crop them or anything... I did add just a little red to make the colors more exciting. 

 

 

 

 

Unreasonable

I was thinking today during church about how when I was a teen I would expect the spirit to be somewhere just because I went to somewhere that people usually feel the spirit.  Like church, the temple, girls camp, etc... I found that it wasn't always there when I expected it to be.  I've learned since then that it is me... it's me that invites the spirit in to wherever I am.  Places like the church and the temple are really good catalysts for learning and for feeling the spirit, but I have to do more than sit in one of those places and say, "Here I am... where's the Spirit?"  It really struck me because watching each teenager go to the podium and bear their testimony... I wanted them to understand what it took me 20 years to learn.  Does that mean that I'm going to be called to be with the youth?  Hmmm.

She's amazing...I know.

I think it's pretty funny and a little amazing at the same time to watch a toddler learn.  They pick what they want to learn and how willing they are to learn it... then they just go at it... at least til they get bored.  Ada likes music.  She's 26 months old... and she can show me an A note on the piano... can show me a high note and a low note... it was actually really funny.  She came to me and said, "Mommy!  Sad note..." and played a low note... then she said, "Mommy!  Happy note!" and played a high note.  Funny and amazing.