A Little About My 2 Year Old

One of my favorite pictures of one of my favorite little boys. Happy Birthday Monkey Man!

My little man turned 2 on June 23rd. I can't believe how fast these two years have gone. In so many ways Dan has always seemed older than he is. He was born with a ton of hair, which has always made him look older than he is. He's definitely our most serious kid and this has also made him seem older. Then, of course, he has a little brother 13 months younger than him and having another baby so close, sadly, made it so Dan had to grow up quicker than was fair and quicker than Kenny and I would have liked. I guess, considering his serious personality, of all the kids, he was the best one to have to grow up quickly. (Another sign Heavenly Father knows what he's doing.) Even with all that, I still can't believe it's been 2 years since I first held him in my arms at the hospital. I remember that day and that moment vividly. He was born with a figure 8 knot in his umbilical cord and he was sooooo purple when he was born. Our doctor told us he'd heard of 13 births with figure 8 knots and of those 13 births only about babies 3 lived. Dan is our miracle baby and, still, 2 years later, I look at him and count my blessings that he lived through delivery and is such a healthy little boy.

Our purple faced little boy, after he got some color back to his face.

Dan is unlike any of my other kids in so many ways and, of course, like them in many ways. I've always thought he was very intelligent (what parent doesn't think that of their kids?) but he's been the slowest to do just about everything. He was the slowest to sit up, crawl, and walk (minus Sarah, but she was just to chicken to walk so that doesn't count.) His language has been delayed like Hannah's so he's been slow to talk. Thanks to speech and the wonderful Leap Frog video "Letter Factory" he has improved immensely in his speech, but he's still behind where he should be for his age. However, despite his language delays, his intelligence seems above where it should be. He always been very good at following directions, way before he should have been able to, he picks up on things quickly and when I try to teach him something he seems to get it and remember it quick. I'm excited to see what this little boy has to offer in the years to come.

Despite his seriousness, he's also such a goofball. As a baby I always felt bad taking him places because women would come up to us and make faces and talk to him trying to get him to smile and he would just sit there with his serious face. We could get him to smile and laugh, but it took some work and it was always worth it. The older he's gotten the more lively he's gotten. He runs around making the goofy noises that all toddlers make, he loves to play games with the older kids, especially Ben. I love watching those two boys running around the house, Ben chasing Dan and both of them giggling to the point that Dan falls over. It's so cute to watch.

Dan's our tantrum kid. All the kids threw tantrums, but not like Dan. I don't know if the other kids just didn't like to throw tantrums or learned quickly that they didn't solve anything, but all of them stopped the tantrums, for the most part, after a few months. Dan, well, he always throws tantrums. If he doesn't get his way he'll throw something or hit something or throw himself on the floor. I'll admit, it's not my favorite thing about him. I often wonder if because of his language delay, he feels he has no other way of releasing his anger and disappointment or maybe he thinks he has no other way of communicating that he's upset. Whatever the reason, I've been trying to work with him on it and we'll continue working on it. Hopefully Adam won't pick up the habit.

Dan at his one year picture. Such a cutie!

Let's see! What else about Dan? He loves to be outside. He'll come and grab my hand and take me to the back door and point while saying "side" over and over again. I think if I let him he'd spend the entire day outside. I wish so bad that we had a fenced yard and I could send him out on his own. It is nice, however, to have the older kids to go out with him when I can't.

He loves water and isn't afraid of it in any way. This causes fear for me and probably will until he can swim (and I'm sure even after that) but I'm glad he's comfortable in the water and I think as he gets older we'll be able to teach him to respect water. When we go swimming he's always jumping in and going under without any fear. Whenever we see water he's always right there to point it out. He loves to walk down by the river, but is not a fan of getting in because it's to cold. That's just fine by me. I'm hoping he'll take up swimming when he gets older just like Kenny. Maybe even be a lifeguard like his Daddy.

Some of his favorites: He loves cheese. If I can't get him to eat anything I always have cheese as a back up (as long as he gets to get it out of the fridge by himself.) His favorite movie (at the moment) is Veggie Tales. Particularly the Larry Boy movies we've been checking out at the library. These have been a major source for tantrums. When I tell him no movies he'll often throw himself on the floor and cry "Airy, Airy." It took me awhile to figure out that "Airy" meant Larry Boy, but luckily he's pretty patient with me. He also likes "Boom Boom" which is the Scholastic movie of the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." Great book and a cute little movie with a fun tune for kids. It's another movie we check out from the library a lot and I think it's helped him with his speech as well. He loves his Daddy and often cries for him when he's not here. The last time he left, Dan cried and cried when he saw Kenny packing up. It was so hard to watch him. I felt so bad for him and for Kenny. That boy loves his Daddy.

He's recently discovered a love of facial features. Particularly the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and hair. He'll spend forever pointing mine out and smiling and giggling the entire time. I love this stage of learning and discovery, it's such a blessing to watch. He loves car rides, his giraffe bike, and his little brother Adam. I'll often catch him walking through the house calling "Baby" or "Amma." As long as Adam can tolerate the roughness Daniel uses on him occasionally, because he's only 2 and doesn't understand, I think they'll be great friends when they get older.

So, that's a little about my Dan. He's a great kid and I'm so happy to have him in my life. He fell on the garage steps tonight and got a little scrap on his head, right before bed. I picked him up and hugged him for awhile. After he'd settled down I took him in his room to change him into his jammies. As I looked at his still sad little face, I had one of those aw haw moments. He's been getting over a cold and has been REALLY whiny lately. It's gotten to the point where, at times, I think I may go insane. I've just assumed it's because he's been sick and sometimes when we don't feel good it just feels good to whine. He's feeling better now though, so my patience with his whining has gone way done. As I looked tonight, at the face of this precious little boy, I think I saw the reason he's so whinny. With 6 kids it's often hard to spread my time evenly between them. I'll admit, with all the stresses of our current life, I've had little time and energy to spend with my kids individually. Dan has suffered because of this, they all have. Daddy's gone and Mommy's too busy keeping things going to spend much time playing and interacting with him. That is going to change. He's growing up fast and I don't want to miss these fun years of his life. Most importantly, I want to build that bond that will be so important later in life. I want to make sure my little boy knows I love him and that I would do anything for him. I want him to know that he and his siblings are the most important thing in my life. Sadly, even though I feel that way, I don't think I act that way a lot of the time. Dan craves that time with me that is so far and few between. His face lights up when I sit and hold him and talk him through the parts of our faces or when I dance in the kitchen with him. We all need a little more of those moments in our lives. I think it would make everyone happier and my kids deserve that happiness.

We Go Because That's Just What We Do

I read an article back in the day. Sadly I don't remember when or where I read it, but something in it has stuck with me for years. I believe it was in the Ensign and I read it when I only had Sarah Kate, but I'm not completely sure. Anyway, in this article the woman was talking about making a decision to always go to church. She said that she and her husband often felt that church, with their little kids, was pointless, meaning they didn't get anything out of it, but they had made the choice to go no matter what. It was the routine of it that they were hoping would positively affect their children. I remember thinking that was such a good idea and though life in church can't be that bad, I needed to incorporate that philosophy into my life. HaHa! It's funny sometimes just how naive we can be.

This adopted philosophy has carried me through a lot over the years. Our current, never ending trial has often left me feeling unworthy and unwelcome, at church, in a way. I remember one time in particular, back in February of 2010. I actually blogged about it because it made such an impact on me. Anyway, I was having a hard time and it was that philosophy of just going because we go, that really got me to church that day and kept me there. I was feeling very inadequate and unworthy to be at church and I excused myself during sacrament and locked myself in the relief society room to cry out my sorrows. It took all I had to stay, but I finished my meetings and God blessed me with the assurance that I did belong in church and that he did love me. It was a very tender moment for me and I'm grateful that I had this philosophy in place to help me make it to church that day.

Today this philosophy is helping me in other ways. I often still feel inadequate (Satan knows just how to work me) but I'm able, most days, to remember God's love for me and to work through those feelings. Now, I'm understanding just how this women from the article was feeling and I'm seeing how the philosophy helped her. Six kids 9 years old and under in sacrament at 9:00 am by myself is no cup of tea. I dread church. I know that's a horrible thing to say, but I wake up every Sunday praying that we can make it through the next few hours. I've discovered that getting a side bench is necessary for there to be any chance of a successful sacrament meeting, so as I rushed the kids out the door a little late today I prayed that I'd find a bench where I could sit on the end and successfully trap the kids in. Luckily I got the last side bench right up front between the bishops wife and the Godfrey's, a family of four kids whom are roughly the same age as my kids. They're one of those amazing families with wonderful, quite kids whom everyone, I'm sure, looks at and admires. I know I do. Anyway, I sat down, looked at who was around me and instantly felt sorry for them. Aw the joys of parenting.

I probably set myself up for it, but today was a particularly difficult Sunday. Sarah was a grouch because she was still tired and had to be woken up (I can totally see that the teenage years are going to be fun with her :) In her defense I do rely on her more than I should and she generally does a good job helping. Ben was pretty good and only a dozen times or so needed reminded to settle down and that I couldn't help him find pictures in his look and find book. The little girls whispered a lot and kept trying to stand on the bench, but other than that they did quite well. Daniel, well, he had a rough day. He woke up early which I knew right off the bat was going to be bad. He spent most of sacrament in silly loud mode and I couldn't calm him down. He would try to stand and sit on Adam, who was woken up early by Dan and was hungry and exhausted by the time sacrament started. It was a mess. Dan was all over the place and with 5 other kids to watch and listen to and remind to be reverent I was overwhelmed and not enjoying myself.

Finally, with about 10 minutes left in sacrament, I had had enough. Sarah had taken the little girls to the bathroom and I was left with just the boys. I tried to feed Adam a bottle of apple juice because he was starting to fuss. Dan decided he wanted a bottle and he completely lost control when I wouldn't give it to him. He started bawling as loud as he could, threw himself on the floor and had a tantrum. He's my first tantrum kid and I'll be honest, it's not that much fun. I looked at Ben, told him we were leaving, and picked up both little boys in my arms and walked the entire way down the chapel isle and out the door. I was so embarrassed. I met the girls in the hall and we hung out there until sacrament was over.

Right before the closing prayer, Dan's nursery leader came out of the chapel with her little boy and headed to the nursery. She ask if I wanted her to take Dan with her. He seemed more than willing to go so I pawned him off to her and waited for sacrament to be over so I could go retrieve our stuff. I took the girls to primary and slowly headed back to the chapel hoping everyone would have left by the time I got there. Nope, both the bishops family and the Godfrey's were still there. I felt this overwhelming need to apologize, which I feel after each sacrament meeting, and they told me they were so amazed at how well I do with my kids. What a sweet thing to say, but really, so not true. I was exhausted and emotionally drained so after cleaning up the tornado we had left on our bench, I took Adam to the car, put him in Dan's seat and turned the movie "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" on for him and sat in the front seat and had a good cry. Sometimes crying can make things all better. :) I stayed in the car through all of Sunday School and even went home for a few minutes to clean myself up. Then, I headed to Relief Society to have a wonderful lesson on missionary work.

As I sat crying in the car during Sunday School I kept thinking to myself, "Why do I even bother coming. I'm not getting anything out of this and neither is anyone who happens to be sitting next to me." When we got home from church today I asked the kids what they learned. Hannah told me all about Alma the Younger and how he was once a bad guy who tried to get others to do bad things and not believe in Jesus. Then he turned good and started believing in Jesus and teaching all the people about Jesus. Ben said he learned about the atonement and how when we make mistakes Heavenly Father will forgive us because of Jesus and that we can be better just like Alma. That's why I go to church. Just like the lady in the article from all those years ago, I go to church for the routine of it and for the lessons that my kids are getting from it whether I am or not. We had an amazing bishop when we lived in West Valley and he got up one sacrament meeting and told us that we belonged in church. He said, whether we had crying, wild children or no one but ourselves to worry about, we belonged in church and that's where God wanted us. I go because that's where Heavenly Father wants us to be and because I am shaping the lives and views of my precious little children. It's not always as rough as it was today, but even on those rough days I know I'm where I need to be for myself and my kids. Someday soon, I'll look down the bench at my quite, older children and be reminded of these Sunday's that we came and struggled through sacrament. I'll marvel at the children I have and probably miss, in a way, the crazy days that I'm living now. For now, we'll keep going because that's just what we do and that's where we belong.

Baby Bird

Our little baby robin friend

On Monday I had put the little boys in bed for naps and sent the other f 4 downstairs. I put Grace and Hannah in bed and told Ben and Sarah it was a nap or at least a good rest day. They were whiny and acting really tired and I needed a break. About an hour later Sarah came upstairs to tell me there was a bird in the window well. Sure enough, she was right. Somehow a little baby robin has falling in one of our window wells. I took the guardrail off to see if it would fly out. It was too young to fly and though it tried really hard, it just never quite made it out.

I left it down there for about 30 minutes to see if it could get out on it's own. When it didn't I decided to get Sarah's butterfly net to help it out. By this time all the kids were up, none of the oldest 4 ever napped, and they wanted to help. Sarah said she wanted to be the one lower down to get the bird out, but when it came time she chickened out. Ben asked next so I let him go down. I wanted him to catch the bird in the net, but he helped it up instead. It jumped over the edge of the window well and ran straight along the side of the house. Straight into the next window well. It was so funny. I was helping Ben up and Sarah started yelling, "No birdie, no, no." Then I heard her say OHHHHH! I couldn't believe it. It was hilarious.

Ben helping the bird up and out of the window well.

The robin hanging out on the little girls window sill.

I let Sarah get the bird out the second time and I told her to try really hard to catch it in the net. She did a great job and she climbed up and out of there with the bird safely relaxing in the net. She of course, wanted to keep it, but I made her set it lose back by the back fence. I don't know where it's nest is or I would have put it back. I really hope it's still alive and I feel kind of bad I didn't look harder for it's nest. Hopefully it's mom found it and it's safe in it's nest.

Sarah trying to catch the baby bird.

Resting in the butterfly net.

Everyone wanted to watch Sarah let the bird go.

Wearing Mom's Clothes

My goofy kids dressing in my clothes. (I have know idea what Ben's doing in this picture. Being silly like always, I guess.)

Kenny came home last weekend and so I spent most of Friday cleaning and getting ready for him. I wanted to have the house clean, the laundry done, and all those other annoying things done so I didn't have to worry about them when he was home. I was cleaning the kitchen during nap time and I sent Ben and Sarah into my room to sort out the clean clothes. I could hear them in there giggling (which I LOVE to hear) and having a great time together. About 30 minutes later Sarah came out with one of my shirts on and her shirt on over it, but not pulled down all the way. I laughed at her and told her she was a silly goofball. She was headed back to change when Ben came out in my pink shirt I wear over my white one. He made me laugh right out loud. What a goofy bunch of kids I have. I just had to grab the camera to take a picture for Kenny. It's silly things like this that make me love being a mom.

Ben decided he wanted to be Tarzan. Doesn't that shirt just scream Tarzan?

Where's The Flooding?

Sarah walking in the flooded Snake River enjoying a view of the Temple.

I've been hearing for weeks now about how we're suppose to be having this horrible flooding season. The Snake River is suppose to overflow it's banks and flood as much, if not worse, than it did in 1997 (which apparently was a bad flooding year.) I've been waiting for this flooding, but it just hasn't happened yet. Temperatures have, for the most part, been unseasonable cool which has kept the snow pack in the mountains and out of the rivers. I still think warmer weather will hit and that snow pack will melt and come downstream, but so far we haven't seen it. In fact, I heard on the news last night that the snow pack in the mountains north of here are at 415% of normal. Yep, all that has to come down sometime so I'm sure we'll be seeing flooding eventually.

For now we wait. We'd had some warmer weather the first few days of June so on Sunday the 5th I decided to take the kids to the river for a walk. The weather was beautiful outside and I thought is would be a nice Sunday activity. I wanted to see if the river had flooded at all and if the river had risen since the last time we were there. I let the girls stay in their church dresses thinking it would keep them out of the water more. Boy was I wrong. As soon as the kids saw the flooded sidewalk they went running for it. Oh well! We had a nice stroll along the flooded river and thought it wasn't very leisurely, the kids had a fun time and it was nice to get out as a family.

Normally there's a little cliff down to the river. Notice the river has almost overflowed it's banks.

Further upstream, above the falls, the river had flooded a little. The kids had a lot of fun walking and playing in the water.

Dan sat in the stroller and watched the other kids play. He wanted to get out so bad, that is until I finally let him out and he felt the cold water. He didn't last too long before he decided to get back in the stroller.

Ben pushing the boys through the water.

The girls walking along the flooded sidewalk.

On our way back to the van.

I think we'll have to head back down to the river the next time we get some nice weather. Well see if there's even more flooding.