The Overstatement, Understatement, and Sweetest thing of the Year

OVERSTATEMENT:
The other day, I didn't feel like cooking dinner (this happens far more often than it should--in my defense, on this particular day, both Hyrum and Thobe had throwing up most of the day). Anyway, rather than suggesting that we go out for dinner, I boiled some water, threw a box of whole wheat spaghetti in the boiling water, and brought up a big container of Prego from the basement. I also believe I toasted some whole wheat bread for a full carbohydrate dinner (the Prego does say that a 1/2 a cup of spaghetti is the equivilent of a full serving a veggies--it doesn't mention in the healthy box that it also exceeds the recommended daily allowance of sodium, but I will just tell you about how healthful my meal was instead).

Anyway, Alden loves this meal--it's one of his favorite. After I scooped a generous portion of spaghetti noodles onto his plate, he eargerly grabbed the gigantic bottle of Prego and attempted to pour some onto his spaghetti. The sauce came out much more quickly than he anticipated, and before he knew it, he had approximately 10 servings of pureed veggies on his plate. He sheepishly looked at Michael and me with a worried look on his face. Michael's response was perfect. He said, "Ya got enough there, or do you need a little more?"

UNDERSTATEMENT:
As I mentioned above, Thobe and Hyrum got the flu (actually everyone but me has had it in one form or another). Sunday night was the worst for poor little Thobe. Michael and I had just settled down for the night and heard Thobe let out a pitiful wail. Michael ran in the bedroom and rushed him in the bathroom when he could see that Thobe was ready to give the old heave ho. After he finished throwing up, Thobe began to cry, sat down on the floor and yelled, "I did NOT want to do that!"

SWEETEST THING:
Hyrum got the flu first in our family. I guess that's why when Thobe got it, Hyrum was especially symphathic. On the day that Thobe was the sickest, Michael called me in the bathroom while Thobe was puking. Hyrum was in there rubbing poor sick Thobe's back. It was so, so cute.

Woopsie

Hyrum's new word is 'Woopsie.' This is a very appropriate word for him since he has "Woopsies" all the time. He is constantly climbing and often falling. The other day I caught him standing on the one inch ledge of our fish tank stand playing with the fish (it makes me laugh that our angel fish, Fisher--yes, our children come up with creative names,-- hides behind our fake plants when he sees Hyrum in the vincinity). Later that day, I heard him calling, "Momma, Momma, Momma." I went and found him climbing up the outside of our stairs, half way to the top. As far as I know, he hasn't fallen from these dangerous predicaments (yet), but he is always running and falling and, well, woopsie.

In addition to his climbing and falling, he also spills everything. If he's mad, he spills things on purpose, but most of the time, it's an accident or a lot of fun, sometimes both. Yesterday, I helped Alden in the office with his homework and making valentines for his friends. I heard Thobe say, "No Hyrum, you're making a mess! No, Hyrum! No!" Not wanting to see the mess, I waited to go into the kitchen, secretly hoping that perhaps it magically would clean itself up or that it wouldn't be that bad. After a few minutes, I went in the kitchen to see the damage. It was worse than I imagined. Hyrum took a thing of yogurt and dumped it all over the floor. He then opened the refrigerator (the fridge remained open all that time until I went into the kitchen) and gotten into my precious blueberries. I need to add here that blueberries are my favorite fruit to eat. I found them at Walmart the day before and splurged (they were $3 for a pint, which is a little pricey, but worth every delicious burst of blueberry goodness, that is if the bursting occurs in my mouth or someone else's mouth who loves them almost as much as I do). Hyrum, however, hates blueberries, which may or may not explain why he decided to dump the entire pint of berries onto the floor and stomp on them (my guess is just that it was a whole lot of fun). Needless to say, when I went in the kitchen, saw the open fridge and the disaster that was spread across the floor, my pregnancy hormones got the best of me--don't worry the kids received no bodily harm; I was just very, very sad.

Today the messes have resumed. I had an issue with my insurance company to resolve, so while I was working on that, Hyrum found a container of frosting and frosted himself and much of our hard wood floor in the entry way (thank goodness it wasn't on the carpet). Our picture is somewhat framed (he didn't eat the frosting at the table), but the mess on his face is not.

He is quite the little handful, but usually, all he has to say is "Woopsie" and things don't seem quite so bad.

Potty Help

I made a vow to myself the other day that I was going to stop talking about my frustration with Thobe using the potty; however, something happened the other night that I couldn't resist writing here.

Tuesday, Thobe had a very bad day with using the bathroom. I won't bore you or gross you out with all the details, but let's just say that after the fourth accident at 3:00, I was beside myself and made him go up to his room, put on pull-ups and jammies, and sit in his room his room for the rest of the night. He broke my heart when he told me how sorry he was, so I would periodically go and spend time reading with him and talking with him, so he wouldn't have to be all alone all that time.

Anyway, I'm digressing. When Michael got home, Thobe came down and ate dinner with us and then he and I went back up stairs and read some books. Then it was time for Thobe to go to sleep. He thought of everything he could to stall bedtime. His last resort was his best tatic.

"Mom," he said softly, "Can we say a prayer?"

"Sure, Thobe. Why don't you say it?"

He began his prayer and thanked God for each member of his family and then started to end his prayer. I thought that this would be a good opportunity for him to pray for help with all his bathroom woes, so I reminded him to ask for help by saying, "Please help me that I can go to the potty."

Thobe paused for a few minutes (I know now that the pause was because he was confused). He then said, "Please help Mommy that she can go to the potty."

I guess it's nice that I can have a little extra help too.

Who's the boss?

When Alden was three years old, he and I had a very serious discussion. He insisted at the time that he didn't have to do what he said because I wasn't his boss. Curious I asked him who was his boss, to which he told me that his dad is his boss. Girls, he told me, cannot be bosses. This, of course, did not set well with me, and I argued with him for an hour, and Michael set him straight when he arrived home from work that night. We discovered that Michael had not given Alden intentional male chauvinistic tendencies but that when referring to himself as the boss in Spanish, he used the male form jeffe rather than jeffa. We assumed that Alden assumed that there was no female form of boss and consequently that women couldn't be the boss. Both Michael and I assumed that we made it clear that both he and I are Alden's boss and that girls can in fact be the boss.

Fast forward three years later to today.....

Alden has been sick the past two days. He has a fever and a sore throat and seriously does not feel well, poor boy. He also has recently acquired a terrible obsession for our Wii. I've been trying to limit his playing time, but it is seriously all he wants to do. Yesterday he prayed that he could be sick today so that he could stay home and play the Wii. I decided at that point that Alden would not be able to play the Wii on the days that he stayed home from school. I don't want to punish him for being sick, but I also don't want to encourage him to be sick either. Alden has been slightly put off with me for the entire day. When Michael came home for lunch, we talked about my decision. Michael said, "Alden when you are a dad, will you let your kids play the Wii?"

"Yes, I definitely will," Alden responded.

Then I asked, "What if your wife tells your kids that they can't play the Wii?"

"I'll tell her, 'I believe I'm the boss around here,'" he stated resoundly.

Michael told me that he thinks Alden is going to have a tough first year of marriage.

I'm thinking that the lesson that we taught him when he was three needs to be reemphasized.

Thobe's Recent Strides

Thobe is so amazing to me. I really love everything about this boy. He is often very quiet but can be a big blabbermouth when he wants to be, especially when Alden's not around. He will just blurt things out that I had no idea that he knew. He is a Spanish explosion right now. He is constantly saying new words in Spanish that Michael doesn't remember teaching him. His mind is literally like a steel trap. He remembers things that surprise me. For example, when we were leaving Southern Utah he said, "Mom, we didn't go to Uncle Ronald's" (my Uncle Ronald has a bunch of animals that the kids love to go and see). Thobe then proceeded to tell me, "Remember when we went and saw the little chicks at Uncle Ronald's house?" We saw these chicks that he referred to two years ago when Thobe was only 2 years old. I couldn't believe he remembered it.

Recently I started doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Thobe. I just felt like being the middle child and being as undemanding as he is that it would be really good for the two of us to spend some one-on-one time with each other every day. It has been a huge success. I can't believe how well he has caught on to reading and what a great job he is doing. He is putting words together and making sense of things like crazy. I really can't think of many things more exciting that teaching your child to read. It's like opening a new world to them. It's very exciting (I highly recommend this book. We did this with Alden too--it is a very effective reading program if you're consistent, and you can get it on ebay or half.com for under $10--no, I don't get any loyalties for that little plug).

Thobe is also making huge strides on using the potty. I've mentioned here before that I often laugh at how much I talk about, think about, and deal with poop and pee, but I have to brag about Thobe's recent strides. He really wants to make Michael and me happy and really wants to be successful at using the bathroom. I think sometimes he just gets distracted and doesn't want to stop playing. We've recently come up with the idea of putting his playing on pause so that he can come back to it. I don't know if this is what has been a factor or if he's just decided that it's time, but whatever the reason, I'm grateful!!! Hooray for Thobe!!! Some day, if he ever reads this, he'll probably hate me for announcing his potty strides. Oh well...it's life for me right now.

I wish that I could some how capture the essense of Thobe. He's such a good boy and just so cute. He is always saying the most creative cute things. I need to do a better job of writing them down because moments like these are too easily forgotten.

Grandpa Hyrum

Recently, our little Hyrum has changed his name. Admittedly, he's never really said his name very clearly. Few people can understand his answer to "What's your name?" In recent weeks, this has all changed. Now when anyone asks Hyrum, "What's your name?" he immediately responds in a clear, happy voice, "Grandpa!" Imagine that, a grandpa at the ripe old age of 2. He of course does it because he gets a reaction, but it's hard not to react to a very small two year old boy telling you that his name is Grandpa.

Hyrum has recently had a language explosion. He pointed out a chimney on the top of a building to me yesterday and is often asking, "What's that?" He is constantly telling us things that he's going to do or that we should do. Some of it is still kind of hard to understand, but some of it is very clear as well. He loves making people laugh and will often say or do things that he knows will get a reaction, especially from his two older brothers. He is also our best jumper that we've had. He loves to jump around the house, and especially loves to jump off things. He prefers us to catch him, but if we're busy, he'll often leap off things that he knows he shouldn't. He's a regular monkey.

Recently anytime he gets hurt in order for even the most minor boo boos to be made well, he must have them kissed. Keep in mind that Hyrum jumps off furniture for fun and is somewhat accident proned. He is constantly coming up to me saying, "Ouch, Ouch." All he needs is one little kiss, and he's fine. Perhaps the most comical was the other day when he had a sore throat and wanted me to kiss his tongue.

He's also become quite the packrat. He lugs big armfuls of stuff all over the house and often falls to sleep next to it (as evidenced by the picture). You'll often see him trying to carry 8 to 10 cars up the stairs and often into his bed. He loves to line the cars up in a straight line. He loves letters right now and loves singing the ABCs. We have a Leap Frog Word Whammer on our fridge. He loves taking all the letters off the fridge and carrying them around for awhile. I swear he'd play with that for hours if Thobe didn't distract him. He'll sing the ABC song while he carries around and plays with his letters. His favorite thing to lug around the house are his stuffed animals. He has a Mickey Mouse that he calls "E. I.," a Curious George monkey that he calls "Gunkey," a frog that he calls "That," a bear that surprisingly he calls "Bear," and a Woody doll from Toy Story that he calls "Oody." He often carries around his "Hello" or telephone with this group too. He carries these things everywhere along with a blanket. If he wakes up in the night and we pick him up, we have to pick up Hyrum and all his gang in order to leave the room where he is. Watching him carry five, fairly large stuffed animals and a blanket up the stairs is somewhat comical, and seeing him get excited to fall to sleep with all his "friends" close to him is very sweet.

I'm happy to have Grandpa Hyrum around to keep us smiling.

An Answer to a Prayer

As I've mentioned in a previous post, Alden has struggled this year focusing on his work. I would dare say that he's one of the smartest kids in his class. He's a great reader, loves math, is fluent in Spanish, and has an incredible memory. However, when he got an Unsatisfactory grade on his first report card, Michael and I were very concerned. We have met a lot with his teacher, talked to the principal, had a the school counselor come in and observe him, and even came up with a reward/consequence system that gave us immediate feedback every day. I think there are several things going on that are not Alden's fault, but the bottom line is that Alden needs to learn to work around distractions and focus on the task at hand.

One day Alden came home from school and told me that he again had not finished his work at school. I was very, very disappointed, especially since this was the third or fourth day in a row that Alden not only missed recess but failed to do his work during recess as well. I had him call and tell his dad (perhaps his worst punishment of all--he hates disappointing Michael), and then said a quiet prayer, pleading with the Lord to know what I could do to help my son be successful in school. As I finished my prayer, the thought occurred to me, "He needs to ask for my help."

I took Alden in my room and asked him if he wanted to have good work habits. He said he did but that the room had too many distractions for him to focus and that he needed Michael or me to go in and watch him work every day. I told him that we couldn't always go to school with him to watch him do his work but that there is someone else who is always there to help him. He knew immediately who I was talking about. I told him that if he wanted to that he could go in his room and pray and ask Heavenly Father to help him focus at school and to remind him to stay on task. He thought about it for a minute and then said he'd like to do that. He went in his room and started playing. I reminded him that he was going to say a prayer. "Oh yeah," he said.

A little while later, he came downstairs. I asked him how it went. He said, "It was really good, Mom. I asked Heavenly Father to help me. I told him that I knew that he would be able to feel Jesus close to him at school because he prayed for his help. The next day I went to Alden's school to volunteer. When I walked in, Mrs. Erickson, Alden's teacher, said to me, "Alden has all of his work done today! He's worked really hard!" I nearly did a cartwheel in front of all his classmates, and he nearly jumped out of his chair he was so happy.

Since that day, he's had good days and bad days. Interestingly on the bad days he's said, "Mom, I know why I got an N or an U today--I forgot to ask Heavenly Father to help me!"

I am so very, very grateful for the way that God does answer our prayers. I'm grateful that he answered mine and even more grateful that he answered the prayer of a young 6 year old boy. I know that God is real and that he loves me and my family. He truly does answer a prayer of faith, sometimes not in the way that we want but in ways that are best for us to grow and learn.