An interview with Melissa

Melissa took this a little less seriously than Matthew.

What does Mommy always say to you?

Go back in the house!

What makes Mommy happy?

Cake?

What makes Mommy sad?

Melissa does.

No!

Matthew does!

How does Mommy make you laugh?

Mommy makes me laugh and Matthew laugh!

What does she do that's funny?

Melissa and Matthew.

What was Mommy like when she was little?

She had toys and play with.

How old is Mommy?

3 years old.

How tall is Mommy?

Big.

What does Mommy like to do?

Plant.

She likes to play in her garden?

Mmm hmm!

What is something Mommy doesn't like to do?

Plant. [giggles]

No, what is something she does NOT like?

Plant!

[okay, moving on] What is Mommy's job?

What's your eyes color?

What is Mommy's job?

Feed the plants.

What is Mommy's favorite food?

A toy! [giggle]

What's her favorite food?

Mommy's favorite food is pizza, Dad!

What is Mommy's favorite color?

Blue. Pink!

What do you and Mommy like to do together?

Feed the plants.

Is there anything else you like to do?

Feed the toys? [giggle]

How do you know Mommy loves you?

I go Chuck E Cheese!

An interview with Matthew

(Thanks to Cameo for the questions.)

What does Mommy always say to you?

Clean my room and help her and be good.

What makes Mommy happy?

Being nice and being good.

What makes Mommy sad?

Not being nice, and being mean.

How does Mommy make you laugh?

Do funny stuff.

What kind of funny stuff?

Funny faces, I think.

What was Mommy like when she was little?

I don't know, but she told me she made mud pies.

How old is Mommy?

28.

How tall is Mommy?

Taller than me.

What does Mommy like to do?

Help and make dinner.

What is something Mommy doesn't like to do?

Keep telling you to stop.

What is Mommy's job?

Do dishes, fold laundry, and ... pull out the weeds of her garden.

What is Mommy's favorite food?

She has lots of favorite foods. I don't know. But I know one; that's salad.

What is Mommy's favorite color?

I think it's green.

What do you and Mommy like to do together?

Play. But sometimes she's busy.

What do you like to play with Mommy?

I always forget.

How do you know Mommy loves you?

Because I love her.

My kids are a little crazy

The kids are so tired of being inside that they have been playing in the rain for almost an hour and show no signs of being done soon.  And this is not Washington "dry rain," this is real honest to goodness they-look-like-they've-been-in-the-shower rain.  Thank goodness we have a small covered porch that Dad can hide in.

They have the whole street to themselves.

Ask Savage Peanut: where would you buy a farm?

Not a farm farm, really, but five or six acres where Rachel can get a tractor and grow stuff as a hobby.  I had kind of pegged this as a "distant future" goal but Rachel tells me it is not too soon to start thinking about this.  

Thinking out loud:

• Alaska.  No, seriously, not all of it is artic.  Juneau, for example, doesn't really get that cold, barely dipping below freezing for most of the winter.  Hobby farming looks possible.  "Households throughout the region, especially in more remote areas, raise productive vegetable gardens including potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, radishes, peas and beans."  There do seem to be at least some properties in that size range, although I get the impression that it's not great place to look for land from the internet.  With an area the size of Delaware but a population of 40,000, there's got to be plenty of room.
• New England area: In general, I'm not interested -- I still hate the East Coast weather, and land there is about as expensive as you can find in the USA.  There might be some exceptions, though; New Hampshire, for instance, is less population-dense than several Southern states that aren't known for being crowded, and about 1/8 as dense as New Jersey, the most crowded.  NH is also the home of The Free State Project, which I find interesting as a frustrated classical liberal.  (Of course, having to link to Wikipedia to describe your political inclination is a Big Red Sign that you're well out of the political mainstream, but given how clearly both of the mainstream parties have demonstrated near-total incompetence over the last 20+ years, I can tolerate not being part of the crowd.)
• The South.  Okay, the weather still sucks, but other than that I don't know much about the region.  What makes Southern states stand out?
• Utah.  It's still a great place to raise kids but if we're going to be off in the middle of nowhere I don't know that a lot of the reasons for that are going to matter so much.  Also, we've been here a long time already, and haven't been able to convince any of either of our immediate families to join us, so maybe it's time to try somewhere else.  On the other hand, Utah is big enough geographically that, at least to someone from the East coast, Southern or Western Utah might as well be different states than the Wasatch Front.
• The Pacific Northwest.  Washington is too damp for me, but Oregon is less so while still being very mild.  Could be a possibility.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

You know you're getting old

... when your wife says your daughter's pediatrician looks young.

Some guy who graduated from medical school, specialist training, residency, and internship looks young.

Depressing.  And here I hadn't even gotten used to going from "college freshmen look young" to "college seniors look young" yet.

The shoe fits

I dreamed that we gave our children American Indian names.  Melissa was Princess Put-your-pants-on.

Comrade Matthew

Matthew and Melissa both got a blow-pop at the Jello Festival Saturday night.  (Which deserves a post of its own, and that one has Rachel's name on it.)  I let them eat the blow-pops on Sunday morning.  Matthew claimed that his was giving him headaches, and threw it away, but Melissa licked at hers with relish until she was close to the bubblegum center.

Matthew tried to convince her to give him the gum.  I intervened: "That is Melissa's lollipop.  It is her gum."

"But it's not fair!  I don't have any gum!"

"That's because you threw yours away.  You both got one; that's fair."

"It gave me a headache!"  Grumbles: "it would be fair if Melissa threw hers away, too."

Thinking about Halloween

For some reason, Melissa is looking forward to Halloween already.  This morning she came up to me and said, "I wear a princess costume.  And you wear a scary costume [she means Darth Maul]."

"And I hold your hand."

Aww.

Rachel is getting her hair done

and Melissa smuggled a crayon down her pants.  Now I am googling how to remove it from the walls.

She can come out of her room when I am finished.

Update: Google is right: WD-40 (!) obliterates crayon marks.  It's like wiping off a whiteboard.  Amazing.  I'd hand Melissa back the crayons and tell her to go to town if I knew she could be trusted to still keep pen and paint and markers at the table.  

The Night the Tooth Came Out

Well, about 5:15 AM to be precise. It's still dark outside, so I consider it night. Matthew came bounding in our bedroom, "Mom, Dad! I need a bag." "No Matthew you do not need a bag, go back to sleep." "Yes I do! My tooth came out!" "Ugh. Oh...that's great Matthew! How about getting a cup and putting it in that?" "OK!" He was so cheerful and happy at such an ungodly hour. I got up and tucked him back in bed. "See Mom? See?" He proudly showed me the gap in his mouth. Since the tooth came out so gradually there was no blood. I hadn't seen that before, because when I was a kid my Dad would "help" by pulling slightly wiggly teeth out right away. Later, I pulled my own teeth after a few days.

"You're getting to be a big boy, Matthew. That's really cool. Now it's time to sleep. You can tell me all about it in the morning." He went back to bed delighted. Today he's shown everyone we've come across his gaping smile. So now his gym class knows, and some neighbors know. He is quite pleased.

Tooth update

Still loose. Still reminding Mom and Dad hourly that it's loose.

Maybe this weekend I will blog every time he tells me about it, so you gentle readers don't have to miss a single tablespoonful of the awesome.

Let's play a game

While Rachel was at the doctor's yesterday and Matthew was at his friend Mason's house, I took Melissa outside to play on the neighbor's trampoline.

We jumped around for a while, but that got old. "You play a dame [game] me," she proposed.

"What game should we play?"

That stumped her for a bit, but not long. "We play Horsey Dame!"

"But I don't know how to play Horsey Game!"

"Play Horsey Dame!"

In the end, of course, she won. So I pranced about, making giddyup noises, and with neighs I would swoop down and grab Melissa and tickle her. She thought Horsey Game was great.

But all good things must come to an end and Daddy got tired of Horsey Game. Melissa was not done. "Play Tiger Dame!" So I prowled about growling. And tickling, of course. A good time was had by all, until the tiger was pooped.

One more game had to be played. Pony Game! Wait, isn't a pony a horse? I decided that a pony went clop clop clop instead of giddyup.

And then I dragged Melissa inside kicking and screaming (well, actually: threw her over my shoulder yelling but not kicking much) because it was 3 PM and I didn't want her to get sunburned.

A Melissa nightmare

Melissa shrieked a blood-curdling shriek.

I paused outside her door in case she went back to sleep on her own.  She shrieked again.  I went in and picked her up.

"What's wrong, little one?"

"Matthew took my shirt!"

"It's okay, little miss.  You had a bad dream."

"You get my shirt back?"

"Yes.  Night night."  And tucked her back in.

3 year old classifications

We were driving back from Syracuse with Uncle Brian in the car with us.

Melissa chattered in the back, "Mama a women...Matthew a boy....I a girl!...Daddy da Man."

"What's Uncle Brian?"

She thought for a moment. "Uncle Brian is a Uncle Brian."

Matthew's loose tooth

On the Fourth of July Matthew complained of his tooth feeling funny during dinner. I took a look and gave him my expert opinion that it was loose. Oh boy! Major freak out time. He seemed to think that something was wrong with him and he decided that suddenly he was in enormous pain. We sent him upstairs to regain his composure enough to talk with him. After a few minutes, Jonathan went up and convinced him that he wouldn't swallow his tooth and that yes, he would get a new tooth. Matthew still thought he was in pain so I gave a rag with an ice cube in it to suck on. After a few ice cubes he forgot his misery and joined the fun with the fireworks. However, his tooth was BREAKING NEWS that he felt compelled to share with all the family and friends there. Every 15 minutes or so we got an update.

All was fine until 3 AM when he woke up terrified that he would swallow his tooth by accident. Regrettably he woke his sister up too. While he went back to sleep quickly after being reassured, Melissa took much longer. Around 4 I crawled back into bed. I was sorely tempted to take tooth matters into my own hands if this continued.

The following day Matthew decided having a loose tooth was very cool and very grownup. After all, only big boys lose their teeth, not little kids like Melissa. He told everyone he could on the airplane about his tooth. He told his Sunday school class. He told all his friends. He informed the midwife. At this point I believe that much of Utah is aware that Matthew is losing his tooth. He thinks his parents are a little slow and somewhat forgetful, so he tells us too on a regular basis.

"Matthew, I know you have a loose tooth. You've told me many times."

"Well, I don't want you to forget!"

It is now a week and we are still waiting for him to lose that tooth!

Boy Heaven

We were in Washington a week ago. Matthew and Melissa had been looking forward to that trip for ages (well forever and ever in little boy time). While there we went to Northwest Trek with Grandma, played in the pool nearly every day, watched plenty of movies, and went to the park. At Northwest Trek Matthew was enamored with a raccoon. The raccoon seemed equally intrigued by Matthew. Here's one of three pictures Matthew took of the same raccoon.
What is amusing is that Matthew could have seen raccoons right on Grandma's back porch stealing the cat food at night. We had bison pass so close to the tram we were in that we could have petted it if we were so foolish. Both Melissa and Matthew seemed to really enjoy the animals. We took them there 2 years ago, but they had much more fun this time around. Matthew took quite a few pictures (some of which I posted on our flickr site). I decided that we only needed so many shots of the same wolverine or deer after all.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip as far as Matthew was concerned was riding on the tractor with Grandpa and "helping" Grandpa with his work. He came bounding up to me part way through, "Mom! I'm having SO much fun!"

The fireworks on the Fourth were a close second though... What little boy (or girl for that matter) doesn't love fireworks?

The day after the 4th we flew back. Melissa was very very distraught after she discovered we were going home. She was fine on the plane, but when we went to the baggage carousels she realized we were not going back to Grandma's house. "I don't wan' go home!!! I wan' go to Gran'ma's house!!!" Great were the tears. She had a really good time and wasn't ready for all the fun to be over.

The Hike (that almost didn't happen)

Call me a nut but I love taking the Activity Day girls hiking. We planned a hike for the end of June. I get a call from the other leader a few days before saying "Umm, I don't think we'll have enough girls, maybe we should cancel." So I call up the girls and find plenty that were planning on coming but hadn't rsvp'd." Then I get a call from the primary president that we need to have two men there should anything go wrong. Nearly 20 phone calls later I find one Dad willing and able to come and I recruit Brian who was staying with us as the other. (Jonathan still had his arm in a brace and wasn't able to come). Then I get a call from the other leader again, "On second thought, we'd rather go on a family trip that day." So the real reason is out. Grrr. To her credit she did pick up the drinks and dessert for after the hike and dropped them off at my house. But still!

So I'm a little grumpy about the whole affair, but I made a commitment to the girls darn it! So we meet at the church that morning. Seven girls, some moms, a dad, and a grandpa show up. This is actually a pretty good turnout. We drive up to Silver Lake in Cottonwood Canyon for the hike. It is a lovely day. The weather in the mountains couldn't be more perfect. Down in the valley it is in the upper 90s but in the mountains it's in the 60s and 70s. Being 33 1/2 weeks pregnant, this is perfect.

Brian being goofy in my hat:


Me at 33 1/2 weeks and still going strong:


We hike a ways up the mountain, but aren't able to do the whole loop because the abnormally cold spring prevented some of the snow from melting and it barred our way on a narrow path (which had a very steep slope). So we hiked some alternative paths and backtracked around the lake. The girls were all troopers about the hike and none of them complained. Brian climbed around on the rock slope and scraped himself up a bit, but there were no other injuries. After the hike we had lunch and drove back. All in all a success.

Our group:

Baby hiccups

I have to admit there is something very cute about baby hiccups in utero.  I put my hand on Rachel's tummy and feel it bounce.  It's hard not to giggle.  I wonder what it must feel like for Rachel.

Five year olds playing Rock Band

It's not a pretty sight.

Matthew can actually pass most songs on Easy with the mic, and Jackson is decent on the guitar thanks to Guitar Hero experience, but they both (commendably) want to try other instruments. 

I tried to give Jackson a couple pointers on the drums.  I was shut down: "I know how to play drums.  But sometimes I choose to mess up."

Riiiiiiight.

Actually, seeing Jackson fail miserably on the drums made Matthew want to try it again himself.  Which is good for a boy who wants everything in life to come easily.

This "pregnancy" thing has always been a little abstract to me

Daddy doesn't really get into Baby until Baby actually arrives on the scene. Until then, it's just something that first makes my wife sick, then tired.

But last night at the midwife she ultrasounded Rachel for a minute to make sure Baby was turned in the right direction and so forth, and we saw Baby sucking his or her thumb in utero for a bit. And I had to admit that was pretty cool.

(The midwife was careful to keep the picture away from anything that might spoil the surprise, so we still do not know Baby's gender.)

Modern consoles are a bit too smart

Case in point: when I go to play Super Stardust HD with Melissa while waiting for the quiche to finish cooking, and it informs me that I have to download version 4.0 first. And proceeds to do so.

So I'm watching a progress bar while waiting for the quiche, instead.

Melissa plays a game

Out of no where, at the dinner table, Melissa grins and tells me, "I say mmm-hmm, you say uh-uh."

"Mmm-hmm!"

"Uh-uh!"

"Mmm-hmm!" [giggle]

"Uh-uh!"

"Mmm-hmm!" [more giggles]

"Okay, that's enough."

Annoying Mommy is a game!

Necessity, the Mother of Invention

For lunch today the kids wanted grill cheese sandwiches. No problem! I opened the refrigerator and realized that we were out of medium cheddar cheese, and the sharp cheddar doesn't make very good cheese sandwiches. Shoot!

Three hungry kids looked back at me. (Matthew invited a little friend over for lunch.) I thought about peanut butter sandwiches, but Matthew and Melissa don't like them. I needed to come up with something quick. Everything tastes better grilled, right? Plus kids will eat anything with marshmallows in it, so grilled peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches. Brilliant!

They were a sweet gooey mess, and kids thought they were terrific. I know, I know, it's not the healthiest lunch around. But I was a desperate woman, and they had grapes and milk to go with it. And the bread was whole wheat!

I had some too; they aren't half bad! Reminded me of peanut butter rice krispy treats.