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It's My Birthday!

Okay...it's not really my birthday. But this afternoon while Lijiah was watching "Iron Giant" and I was snoozing I heard him whispering. I opened one eye and he was murmuring to his toys that they needed to be quiet. "It's mommies birfday, and he's sweeping. Be quiet for his birfday." So I got to take a little nap. Then when nap time was over and he had eaten his 3rd lunch for the day he gave me a fabulous present. He got the metal star out of my calendar basket and presented it to me. It's really been quite cute.

He has been extra willing to do anything I ask...I wonder how many more birfdays I can have this year?

Halloween

For Halloween we went to Provo to my good buddy's house for a little gathering. It was a wicked good time. We played some games, had some fabulous food, and great company. I did spend a good chunk of the night tending to Lijiah whose eye was "broken" because "everybodys punched him." In reality he had not been punched at all. He had some variety of allergic reaction. His eye swelled up and he got hot and itchy. A million thanks to Joe for going to get the Benadryl!!!!!!!!!!!! Things got much smoother after that.





Jake really was more excited to be a spider than it looks like in the pictures. In fact he wears his "bus at"(which means spider hat) nearly everyday. Lijiah was Optimus Prime...only the most awesome Transformer in history. He wears his entire costume pretty much everyday. But at least I can say I'm getting my monies worth.

All in all it was a fun time...looking forward to next year.

Catch Up - October

October was busy. We had Lijiah's Primary Program at church. He was totally gung-ho to be on the stage...until shortly after the sacrament. Then he decided it was much better to sit on Grandpa's lap. And that's okay.








Jake turned 2 on the 17th. And sure he was only turning 2...but where's the challenge in blowing out 2 candles? So I put all 20...or thereabouts...on the cake. Much more fun, for me anyway. We had a big party with all kinds of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. It was really a ton of fun.



On the 18th nearly all my family climbed to Timpanogas Cave. That was an...experience. The cave was AWESOME!!!! But the trip up and down the mountain was...well...not so awesome. It really is a long hike. A mile and a 1/2, gaining something like 1100 feet in elevation. Don't get me wrong...that would be a tough hike for anyone. But you go climb that mountain with an extra 100 pounds of sqirming children hanging on you...then tell me that you're tough. I personally did not do that. I only carried one of my kids at a time. But we happened to have a superhero with us that day (okay it was my brother Jarod) who carried both of my "fabulous" children for the steepest part. I did carry two for a bit...but the two I packed weighed about as much as one of mine...the smaller one.






Anywho...long story short. I will most definitely go to Timp Cave again. I even more definitely will not do it until my kids can make the hike by their own power.

Catch Up - September

September was a good month for us. We spent Labor Day weekend in Vernal getting the last of everything from my old house. I got the crazy idea that I should make pajamas for my kids...they turned out fine...but I don't think I'll take on that task again soon. Sewing gives me more of a headache than anything else. Lijiah survived his first month of pre-school. Jake graduated to the two's class at daycare...even though he techinically wasn't 2 yet. I started a new job at the University of Utah, Center for Alheimer's Care, Imaging and Research (CACIR).

It's Been A While...

No, we didn't fall off the earth. Just got busy. We had a big BBQ a couple weeks ago, made a trip to Vernal, and tossed in a couple outings to the zoo. Add in work, church, and play time...we've been up to our eyeballs in fun.


Lijiah started school again today. He's in his second year of pre-school. His teacher is Miss Susan. His bus driver is Miss Darla. Yes, he gets to ride the bus again...a whole entire block and a half. And he gets to ride 4 days a week this year instead of two. He goes to Columbia Elementary. His teacher called me after school today...just to tell me what a fun little guy he was. She also asked if he should really be in her class. She was real impressed with how much he knows. Not many of the kids in class knew the alphabet, let alone numbers to 20, how to write their own name, all the colors, and most the shapes. Lij is really a smarty pants. He spells several things for me now: his name, mom, stop, and Jake. This year our goals are on speech pathology and socialization. Big words to say we want him to form words better and play nice with other kids.


Jake is starting to talk more every day. Most of what he "says" is still just me knowing what he's trying to say. But in the mix is: pease, chanks, Mama (works for Mom or Grandma), Jijiah, Papa, pop (when he wants an Otter Pop), djee (mostly I figure that means drink). He's getting to be quite the little bruiser. Lijiah needs to learn to stop harassing Jake. Because Jake has learned that he can plow right over top of Lij and hold him down. It's always good fun when the little brother can beat up the big brother.


I'm just working. I am a "legal assistant." Always looking for something closer to home, since I commute to Park City. But until something else comes up, I will just plug along. I like the work, have some differences with my boss...but he's not there too very much. And the paralegal and I get a long great. We have plenty of fun when the boss is away.

Red Means Go, Green Means Stop

Yesterday on the way to Grandma Sonnie's house I stopped at a red light. I thought, according to law, that's what you're supposed to do. Boy was I mistaken. Lijiah, who knows more than me about traffic rules, obviously, got very upset that I was stopped. I told him, "Well that's what you're supposed to do at a red light." "NO!!" he says. "Wed is go and gween is stop. Go mommy, GO!" Due to the fact that we were at the corner of Bangerter Hwy and 78th South (not that I would do it at any other intersection anyway) I didn't think it would be very safe for me to dart out in traffic on the orders of a 4-year-old. So we stayed put. The light turned green and I proceeded across the intersection. At which point the smarty pants in the backseat starting screaming, literally screaming, at me to STOP. "Gween is stop Mommy. STOP RIGHT NOW." Now we were in the middle of a busy intersection, so I didn't think it wise to follow his orders.

We carried on the down the road stopping at reds and going at greens. All the while Lijiah was getting more and more angry at me for doing the wrong thing at each light. The angrier he got the more I laughed. The more I laughed the madder he got. "Stop laughing Mommy. Iss not funny. You doing it wong. Errbody's doing it wong. Iss just not funny anymore." I think if he could have, he would have popped me on the back of the head. I was laughing so hard at this point that I almost had to pull over to get myself together, Lij was screaming, and Jake was in his seat looking at both of us like we're crazy. (He might be right.)

I still can't convince Lij that red is stop and green is go...but as mad as he gets at me for not following orders, I just think I better carry doing it my way. But then again who knows...maybe I could start a revolution Stopping on Green and Going on Red. Of course what would probably really happen is a lot of wrecks and me being uninsurable...so I will stop at red, go on green, and maybe someday convince Lij that I'm doing it right.

Airplanes and Corndogs

So Lij was eating his Corndogs for dinner (no one ever accused me of being a gourmet chef...and they probably never will) when he started making airplane noises. I turned around and he had transformed his 2nd corndog from a food product to an airplane. It's really easy. He explained to me, "just stick the stick in it like this way. Then fly, silly mommy." That thing flew miles before it finally landed in his mouth.

Birthday Boy

Lijiah turned 4 years old today. He loved having everyone sing happy birthday to him. And I finally convinced him that he's 4 years old. First he was telling me that he is 1 year old now...then I got him convinced of the 4 part and he wanted to be 4 minutes old. Gosh...I can't imagine a 4 minute old baby as big as him. He was big enough at 4 minutes, without being a half grown toddler.

He got some clothes and dinosaurs. Not to interested in the clothes...but the dinosaurs were a hit with everyone, as was candle blowing. The poor candles were just nubbins by the time Lij and his cousins all had a dozen turns.

But they had fun, so that's what really matters.

I'll guess I'll join the crowd...

I've been fighting it...but I guess I'll finally make a blog. I've had fun watching my friends and family blog stuff. I'm not gonna guarantee how long this will last, but we're gonna try!

The boys and I are finding all kinds of ways to have fun together. We ran through the sprinkler today when we got home. The neighbors across the street got a total bang out of it. I think the part they found particularly funny was me. You see kids running through sprinklers all the time...you don't too often see the mom doing it to. But we had fun just the same.

We're headed to Vernal this weekend to my mom's family reunion...that should give me some good stories. Until next time...