Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Buckeyes

So Jacob is so darn cute right now. I love this stage where he is constantly saying and doing and learning new things everyday. One of his recent distinctions is between good guys, bad guys, and buckeyes, as shown in the following video. I need to keep on my blog because I could write something adorable and new that he says every day.

Hyrum-isms

So Hyrum has really started to turn a new page. With the exception of last week (I'm not sure what has gone on), I think he is finally potty trained and is far more obedient than he's ever been before. Hyrum has decided that he's 4 years old rather than 3 (even though he's been 4 since November) and actually tries to do what I ask him to do rather than trying to do the opposite.

Hyrum has been especially funny though. We never know exactly what he might say, which always makes me laugh. For example, I have habit of calling my kids silly names. I'm always calling the kids Sugar, Pumpkin Eater, Sweety Peety, Booga (that's Jacob's nickname), and who knows what. Whenever I call Hyrum, Sugar, for example, he looks at me with a rather concerned eye, and says, "I'm not Sugar, Mom. I'm Hyrum. I'm a boy, REMEMBER!!!!" as though I had forgotten.

For the last 15 years or so, my favorite color has been blue. However, Hyrum is very gender specific, and blue, according to Hyrum, cannot be a girl's favorite color. So whenever he asks what my favorite color is, and I say blue, he gets very annoyed. "No, Mom, your favorite colors are pink and purple, remember? What is your favorite color, Mom?" If I'm dumb enough to say that it is blue again, he gets very annoyed (sometimes he even tells me that I'm annoying him). "No, Mom, your favorite color is pink and purple. Blue is not a girl's color" (how he knows this I don't know). Then he asks me even more insistently, "WHAT is your favorite color?" When I finally tell him that my favorite colors are pink and purple, he exclaims excitedly, "Yes, Mom, that is CORRECT!"

He also is very insistent when we are riding in the car, listening to music, that if a boy is singing that I can't sing too because I am a girl and "that song is just for boys. Don't sing, MOM!!!"

He has really enjoyed going to his new school. He calls it his orange school because it is in fact orange. He really misses his brown school though. Just the other day, he realized he wasn't going back to his brown school. This realization made him very sad. We went and visited his old teachers, and I hope that helped. His transition was very sudden, which I think was a little hard him. He's done great though in his new school. He now writes his name, is constantly pointing out letters, and is extremely technically savvy. He can figure out how things like computers and my new cell phone work as well or better than I can. It's a little scary how he can figure this all out.

Hyrum is very observant. Michael was seeing how a football game on the internet looked on our TV since we just cancelled our satellite. As it inevitably happens in a football game, a ref threw a flag. "Ooops," yelled Hyrum, "a banana peel!!!" He's so funny and crazy.

Invoking a Higher Power

So the other day, Thobe and I went on a rather long drive to take a treat to his Primary teacher for his birthday. The boundaries for our ward at church are very broad. I would say that members from our ward may live up to an hour and half away from each other. We are fortunate in that we only live 12 minutes from our driveway to the church parking lot and are centrally located in our ward boundaries for the most part. Anyway, when I entered the address to Thobe's teacher's house into our GPS, I was surprised to see that the drive was 20 minutes longer than the 25 minutes that I already anticipated. "Oh well," I thought, "Thobe and I will enjoy some mommy Thobe time. So we started out.

Thobe and I had a very pleasant conversation as we drove. He told me a lot about his made up superheros, U.S.A. Face, Al Qida Face, and U.S.A. Face's pet, Baldy (Baldy is a Bald Eagle, Thobe's favorite animal). I heard lots of interesting situations where U.S.A. Face beat Al Qida Face and learned all about U.S.A Faces favorite colors (red, white and blue) and U.S.A. Face's birthday (the fourth of July, ironically the same birthday as our nation and Thobe's Grandpa Monday). As we were driving, Thobe noticed that our GPS's speedometer was turning red (this is our GPS's handy feature to remind me that I'm speeding).

"Mom, you are speeding. You need to slow down," Thobe insisted.

"It's okay, Thobe. I'm just going 59 mph rather than 55; I don't think we'll get a ticket going a little over."

"But Mom, if we speed we could get in a wreck and die. You NEED to stop speeding! We don't want to die!" he demanded.

Feeling frustrating that we would never get there and being the fabulous mother that I am, I told him that we were really going to be fine.

"I'm going to say a prayer. Heavenly Father, We thank Thee for this day. We thank thee for our family. Please protect us. Please bless that we'll stop speeding." And then he ended his prayer.

I didn't speed for the rest of the trip.

God Bless The U.S.A

Alden has recently become very interested in listening to music. His favorite song is "Dynamite," which has been a huge tool for me in helping us get our basement clean. I simply hook up my MP3 player to our computer's speakers, crank it up as loud as it will go, and the boys and I start cleaning. By the time Taio Cruz sings "Dynamite" four times, our basement is spick and span. I love it! Usually when we finish, Alden wants to listen to Weird Al songs, especially those that have to do with Star Wars and superheros.

Yesterday was a "Dynamite" cleaning day as I've described. When we finished, Alden once again, asked to listen to Weird Al songs. Thobe asked me if we could listen to a song about the U.S.A. (He is really into the U.S.A. and army men. He's made up a super hero named U.S.A. Face, who has a pet eagle named Baldy, and who has an enemy named Al Qaida Face--I'll have to write a post about his later). I thought it would be fun to listen to "God Bless the U.S.A." and turned that on.

We began listening to this song, and Thobe was really happy. Alden asked me if this was a sad song. I told him that it usually makes me cry, but it's not a sad song. We continued to listen, and when it said, "And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me," Alden said, "Mom, is this talking about our soldiers?" I told him that it was, and that included two of his great grandparents who fought in World War II. At this point, my sweet Alden said, "Mom, I don't know why, but I think I'm going to cry."

I love that even at such a young age, that Alden has a love for his country, a respect for those who laid down their lives to make us free, and an understanding that God has given us all these blessings. I also love that he is so devoted to his family, even to his ancestors that have gone on before him. What a great blessing it is to be Americans and to be able to use our God-given freedom! I too love my country and my family and am so proud of my son who respects all this too.

A Surprise Visitor

A few days ago, we FINALLY had a small spot of nice weather....FINALLY. This has been a very cold and dreary winter, so when we had a day in the 60s, we were very excited (I'm hoping for another day like that someday). Anyway, the boys were especially happy about playing outside and did so as long as we let them. On their way back in to the house, they let in what they thought was our cat Priscilla.

So the boys came in and got their pajamas on, and then we read Scriptures and said prayers as a family. Thobe has a had a rough time falling to sleep at night, so Michael was gently tickling his face while I hugged Hyrum. The house was just starting to quiet down when we heard a lot of meowing. Our kitty does not make a lot of noise unless something is wrong, so Michael ran downstairs as quickly as he could. A few minutes later he called, "Melissa, there is a little kitten in our house! You have to come and see it." I told him I did not want to see it because then I might like it, and we did not need more than one cat. Being the coaxing husband that he is, I went down in the basement and looked at it. 

The poor little thing was scared out of its whits and was very cute. We tried to talk it out of the closet where it was hiding, but it didn't want to come. We just sat and watched the basketball game that we were watching, and eventually, it came out of hiding. After that, the little guy wouldn't leave us alone. All he wanted to do was to snuggle with us, which was a bad thing for me because I was allergic to him. He was very, very affectionate and happy, and we knew that unless he belonged to someone else that he would be a good cat for Michael's parents.

It was especially interesting the next morning when we introduced him to the kids. Hyrum kept saying, "Oh Priscilla really likes me," as it nestled itself against him. Priscilla usually hides (and for good reason) when she sees Hyrum and Jacob. Alden and Thobe loved the new kitty. He would snuggle and play with them as long as they were willing. However, the most entertaining duo was Jacob and the kitten. The kitten loved attention, and Jacob had no problem giving him far more attention than he wanted. The kitten would snuggle next to Jacob and then he would put his arms around the kitty and give him a very tight hug. Eventually the hug would get even tighter, and Jacob and the kitten would roll across the floor. Surprisingly the first 10 times of this seemed to be fine with the kitty, but after awhile the kitty didn't love it and ran away. This was also exciting to Jacob. Giggling, he would chase the kitty around the house and try to grab it. Eventually the kitty would give up, and complacently sit next to Jacob. Jake would get so excited that he would start flailing his arms and hit the poor animal. At this point, Michael and I would intercede and the kitty would escape. Each day, the kitty seemed to like Jacob a little less, and Jacob loved the kitty even more.

My favorite Jacob and Kitty moment happened a couple days ago. Jacob fell to sleep on the way home from picking up Hyrum from preschool. If I move him, he wakes up, so I just kept the van and garage doors open and worked in the kitchen and laundry room, checking on him regularly. When Alden and Thobe got home from school, I asked Alden to check on Jacob. He came running in the house, yelling, "Mom, Mom, you've got to come see this. It's so cute!!!" I asked him, while I ran down the stairs, what was going on. He said that when he peeked into the van, the kitty was contently sitting on Jacob's lap, and Jacob was petting the kitty with a big smile on his face. He really loves that cat.

The best news about this story is that the kitty now belongs to Michael's parents. We kept putting the kitty outside and leaving the garage door open so it could go back home, but he kept coming back. Michael's parents have been wanting a cat, so we took him up to them. I have to admit that life with the kitty wasn't blissful. Since he did like to snuggle so much, I would often find myself petting him and then would touch my eyes. This would make my eyes so itchy and me so sneezy. I didn't love that. Also unlike our kitty Priscilla, this cat was not house trained and left more than one "treasure" for us to clean up. The amount of human discretion that I have had to deal with has dramatically decreased in the last few months, so I wasn't at all interested in having cat pooh and pee replace that void.

We can go to Toledo when Jacob needs his kitty fix, and I imagine that Michael's parents will be far better at house training a cat that I am--I am convinced that I am the worst potty trainer in the world.

Jumpin' Up & Down With All His Might

I find personality tests fascinating. I have talked at length with my sister-in-law about the color personality test that classifies people into blue, white, red, and yellow categories. At this point in their lives, I would say that each of my children falls into each category. 

For example, Alden is undoubtedly blue. He is extremely loyal and true to his friends, his family, and the Gospel. He is driven by doing something simply because it is the right thing to do. He is extremely compassionate and forgiving and caring about other people. 

Thobe is white. He is extremely laid back and not easily upset by little things. He takes life as it comes to him and rarely complains. He wants things to be fair and peaceful. I always have to be aware of Thobe's requests. If he asks me to do something, and I forget, he never badgers me like his brothers do. He just contently waits, sometimes for hours. 

Hyrum is red. He loves to be in charge. He is always bossing all of us around. He tells us what to say when we talk to him and doesn't like us to tell him what to do. Potty training has been an adventure with Hyrum simply because if it's not his idea to use the bathroom, he doesn't want to do it. He's made a lot of progress though, and is now 90% potty trainied--we just have to get him to stop doing what he's doing and go to the bathroom when he needs to go.

Jacob is undoubtedly yellow. I've never seen a one year old who is more motivated by just having fun. He loves to laugh and giggle and just have a good time. When we are in church he loves to just play, especially because he's in such close proximity to his brothers. He is constantly trying to tickle them or do something silly to make them laugh. If we are in a restaurant (and he's not eating--he loves to eat too), he likes to be silly there and again play with his brothers (it has gotten so bad that Michael has told me he never wants to take the kids to a restaurant again). Jake loves to be "the baby battering ram." This is something that Michael came up with where he chases the other boys around the house with Jacob as his weapon and runs into them with Jacob's head. Jacob LOVES this. He'll tug on Michael and say, "Ram, Ram?" He loves to play with toys and will play for hours on end with toy cars. He hates being tied down, which makes diaper changing next to impossible. Whenever Michael changes his diaper, he always asks me, "How do you do this? He's moving around like crazy!" Jacob dislikes bedtime very much because he knows it's the end of his playing for the day. Last night, Michael was watching basketball and just let Jacob play nearby. Jacob decided he wanted to play in the Jumperoo (I still haven't put it away), and climbed on in. Michael heard continuous jumping for a long time, and then noticed that it stopped. He looked over at Jacob and found him in this situation below (one leg in the jumper and one leg out). He'd been jumping on 1 leg for who knows how long having the time of his life. Apparently, he eventually just ran out of gas. I love that little guy.

Notice his legs--one leg out, one leg in.

The Preschool Passoff

Starting Monday, Hyrum will go to a new preschool. Since September he has been attending Marimor preschool as a typically developing student (Marimor is a wonderful institution in our area that services children with special needs--they have a great preschool where they invite typical students to be apart of their classroom). Anyway, Hyrum has done well there. He knows all of his alphabet (with minimal help from me unfortunately), he loves talking about the days of the week ("What's today, Mom?" he always asks--although if it's evening and you say it's Friday, he'll say, "No, today is tonight; it's not Friday), and he loves writing the letter H. He would also love to write the rest of his name, but unfortunately, his hand shakes. He has been diagnosed as having familial tremors. We have been told not to make an issue of it so that he won't become self-conscious, but it does affect how he is able to write and do fine motor tasks. So, on his teacher's recommendation, we had Hyrum tested and got him qualified for some occupational therapy (I think both of my older boys would have benefited from this, and they don't have any tremors). The bad thing is that because he will receive services, he no longer qualifies as a typical student and will now have to attend a different school. The new place that he will go to is just around the corner and is a very good program, so we're excited, but it is a little sad to move on so suddenly.

Because of this change, I have to write my favorite memory of Hyrum being at Marimor. One day I went to pick Hyrum up from school, and his teacher said, "Hyrum really loves you." I was happy that she felt that way and asked why she said that. She said that day he was just sitting at the table waiting for me to come and pick him up and said, "I love my mom. My mom is my girl." 

I love being my Hyrum's girl.