What to Get a 4 Year Old For Valentines....

For Valentine Zach got the greatest gift ever......my ipod.

He has envied his sister and brother's ipods for far too long. Since bequeathing him mine on Sunday he was been watching videos nonstop and listening to Glee tunes. There's nothing funnier than listening to a 4 year old trying to sing along to Journey and Aerosmith. Plus as an added bonus he has a cold and is really congested. Stuffy nose + incoherent singing= entertainments for us both for hours.

Post script:

I have to correct myself. The funniest thing EVER is watching/listening to him dance and sing to Flo Rider's "Low, low, low". He keeps saying "he hit the phone" instead of "he hit the floor" :) And the serious gangsta face he's sporting while doing all this is priceless.

A Few Visits and a Little Valentines Fun....

First off, did you see Lady Gaga at the Grammys?? Holy heck, she is one strange cookie. I'm all for freedom of expression but when you look like you've infused chicken gizzards into you shoulders you might want to step back and rethink your motivation.

With that said, all in all it was a pretty good Sunday. No tantrums, everyone got to church on time, and I even snuck in an hour long nap! After church 5 of my young women and I drove around to visit all the girls who hadn't been to church and take them their calendars and a cupcake (btw...these cupcakes were so stinking cute! Brenda went way above and beyond on them. I feel really sorry for the girls when they hit my month to make them.). We hit about 11 houses and reached someone at every home. HOORAY!!! It is so cool to see the girls get excited about visiting and really wanting to connect with the young women we don't get to see as often. Love them, love them, LOVE THEM!!!

This evening Noah worked on addressing his class valentines for tomorrow. He has a special "secret admirer" valentine for a cute little blond in his class named Noelle. He is truly his father's son :)

Tay is missing the fun of getting valentines now that she is in junior high. They sell roses for kids to send to each other at her school, but from what she has told me very few do. I think I'll have to surprise her with some flowers after school. It might not be the same as having the boy you like give you some, but I think she'll like them anyway (She was really hinting that flowers from any one would be cool when we were at the grocery store the other day).

I love my 3 little valentines, and my big one as well. On Saturday we decided to go to a movie and lunch because we knew Monday night would be insane. It was really nice to hang out with my cutie. He's been so busy and has been working such long hours over the last few months that we haven't seen each other very much. After our date we headed down to my parent's house for a bbq. I love my parents and siblings and nieces/nephews- I could not ask for a better family. James gets such a kick out of teasing my mom- this weekend it was all about how he purposely wiped off her eyebrows- but he loves her like his own. My sweet niece Shelby made my heart smile :) We were decorating heart shaped sugar cookies and I looked over and Shelby had licked off all the icing and only taken a bite or two of her cookie. Grandpa was not appreciative of that, and really wanted her to finish the cookie, so when he wasn't looking I put more icing on it and told her to enjoy :) She is a girl after my own heart. I LOVE icing but hate whatever is underneath it. It made me so happy so see that trait had passed on to the next generation.

It's late but I have to wait up until James falls asleep so I can put his secret Valentines present in his car so he can find it when he goes to work. I love surprises!!!! Happy Valentines Day everyone. Give the people you love a big hug, and let them know every single day how much they mean to you.

Zachie creates a word....

There is no "tomorrow" or "tonight" in Zach's vocabulary. Instead, any indeterminate amount of time in the future is "tolater", as in "mom, can I go to bed tolater?" or "can I save my treat for tolater?".

I think he's started a revolution. I'm going to start using it when my other older children bug me about when something is going to happen or occur. For instance, when they ask when dinner is, I can say "tolater". There's no commitment to a certain time, or even day. It's just some time in the future.

Brilliant me thinks.

See you tolater!

Big Night A Comin'

This afternoon I get to spent 2hours coiffing and primping Taylor for the Valentines Dance at school. She's pretty ticked at me because I won't buy her yet another new outfit for the dance, but I offered to do her hair as penance. I don't get it. How can I survive owning exactly 2 pairs of jeans and yet my daughter looks into her fully stocked closet and exclaims "I have NOTHING to wear" (insert annoying whiney voice here).

I guess her sucess at the dance hinges on whether or not the boys like the brand new shirt with the perfect pink shrug that they won't be able to see or decipher the color of in the dimly flourescent lit school cafeteria.

I hope someday she forgives me :)

Self discovery

I am a giant douche.

I just said something totally snarky to a 14 year old boy.

All because he was rude to my teenage daughter, like all teenage boys are to girls their own age.

Yes he is a turd, but at least his behavior is age appropriate. Mine, was not.

Bad Loma, bad!

From here on out.....

Last night at YW our wonderful Mia Mid counselor taught the girls a really meaningful lesson on the importance of writing down our histories. After as I was talking to James, I realized how negligent I have been of late in doing just that. What is this blog but a place to write down the stories and inconsistencies of rearing my three darling but rambunctous in the hope that someday we'll read them together and remember just how much we loved each other?

So I'm going to do better. Too many times I have hesitated to post anything because I have worried about visibility or who was reading it, so I have intentionally left things pretty lighthearted and only surface deep unless I was writing about my own feelings and not the rest of my family. So no more. It may be sad, it may be embarassing at times, but come what may someday we'll want to remember the things that were important to us and the trials we've faced and conquered.

So here I go.......

This is has been an insane start to the new year. James' work is exploding (in a good way), Tay is the manager for her JR. High basketball team and playing on a comp team as well. Noah is thankfully just plugging along, with a good attitude most of the time :) He is attending his third Braille Challenge in a few weeks. Today Karla, his braille teacher and district VI specialist sent home a note that just gushed over how far he has progressed since the beginning of 4th grade. In August he was reading 6 words per minute by touch, and this week he read 18 words. That's a 300% improvement!!! It's hard because he can read braille visually very quickly- much more than 18 words a minute- but he's supposed to be using his fingers rather than his eyes. Karla had to construct a box to go over his fingers because he was cheating so much by looking at the braille! Oh well, I'm grateful he still has enough sight to see it. Braille is so complex- it's an entire language with rules and verbage. But it is so critical for his future education and employment that he learn it. I am so grateful for Karla and all she is doing for him.

The biggest news in our family now is that Zach is FINALLY 100% potty trained!!! It has been such a battle to train this kid. He has been peeing consistently for the last year and a half, but has completely refused to go #2. He had "fecal aversion"- an intense fear of #2ing in the potty. We have had many wars over the issue, and he's spent countless hours sitting on the toilet just turn around and hide under a bed and go the minute I let him get off the pot. As of about December though he's turned the corner and has been awesome at both #1 and #2 since!!!! Hooray for him, and hooray for mom because he can no go to preschool next year:)

That's all for today, except that I have a Zone Bar thief in my house and I have a sneaking suspicion (well, not really sneaking as I just found wrappers under his bed) that his name starts with and N and he's 10 years old. I'm not really a stinker about food- nothing is really off limits in our house EXCEPT for my raspberry Zone bars because they are so stinking hard to find. I've only found them at the Harmons by my parent's house. Boo grocery stores- you need to stock them!!!!

My Loopy Sickies....

I think I love my kids most when they are sick. There's just something about a vulnerable, fever red face and swollen eyes that just tears at my heart. Plus they don't have the energy or inclination to drive me nuts :)

Tay and Zachie have been trading fevers for the last day or so. In the heat induced confusion, they have spouted off some of the weirdest things to me. For example, last night Tay asked me what I'd do if she had a tail. My answer (besides throwing her in the river at birth of course or having a shaman exorcise the demon spirits out of her) was that I'd sell her to a freak show for $500 and then buy an ipad with the proceeds.

After a long afternoon of lessons I emerged from the dungeon at 5:30 last night to a slightly lucid Zachie yelling at me "Mom, My beaver is gone. My beaver is gone!" Apparently his sister told him that if his fever went down he could go play downstairs with his brother. I didn't explain to Tay why his lisped "beaver" instead of fever was so funny, but my mom and I spent a good ten minutes on the phone laughing our head off while expanding the metaphor :)

And now i'm laying her on my bed with my little sickie while he eats M&M's and watches Toy Story 3. He is forcing his eyes to stay open. I love this boy so so much. He has the most expressive face- I could watch it for hours.

Got to go- he just asked "Momma, will you hold me?"

Only forever beautiful boy.