My Husband, Super Dad!

I'm supposed to be prepping out a case study presentation that I have to do for my clinical group tomorrow, but I just had to take a couple of minutes to blog about the amazing man I'm married to. On Tuesdays, I leave in the afternoon to go to school and Chris comes home early from work to take the kids and meet Laine at the bus stop. In between lab and lecture tonight, I called home to check on things. Not only was Chris watching our kids, but he had like 6 neighbor kids over as well and I could hardly hear him over all the fun and laughter going on in the background. When I got home, he already had James fast asleep in his bed and was reading with the girls to get them ready to sleep. He's just so amazing and takes care of everything. This morning, he got up, packed Laine's lunch and got her off to the bus stop. Every day, he uncomplainingly and in fact, smilingly, plays with the kids, teaching them new things, reads to them, teaches them to read to him, makes their meals, gives them baths, washes their clothes, and tucks them in at night. Oh, and did I mention he's our primary breadwinner too? Oh and he's been to every soccer game, taken sick kids to doctor's appointments, been the back-to-school night dad, and done a million other things. Babe, you're the best. Thanks for everything.
I wish you could see James's face in this picture. He's so happy when his Dada reads to him.

Sorry I've been such a blog slacker...

but life's been so hectic! Plus, my camera's at work right now, so I haven't had a chance to upload recent pictures of the kids. So, here are a couple of old pictures. These first two are from almost exactly one year ago. Laine had just gotten her Wonder Woman costume in the mail and was trying it on for us. I think out of all the kids, Eve's the one that's grown the most since last year. She looks so little to me in this picture with her footie pajamas and snuggling her woof woof.Here's James a year ago when he and I visited Chris when the kids and I were still in Salt Lake. He hasn't really grown much and pretty much looks the same except that now he can walk and make a few animal noises. The other day, we were getting ready for a bath and my little naked James stood right in front of the toilet and peed. Unfortunately, he was about 10 inches too short to clear the rim, but he was very pleased with himself for peeing like Daddy.This picture is recent. It's from earlier this month on Laine's first soccer practice. I hadn't had a chance to buy her the uniform yet because they'd announced the practice that same day. She has practice once a week and games every Saturday. Chris takes her to the games and I haven't been to one yet, but he said on her first game she decided she liked the other team better and was rooting for them. But this week, she was supporting her team and even made a significant contribution toward scoring the team's only goal that game. Go Laine!
Life has been really busy. Sending Laine to kindergarten means that Eve relies on me to be her pretending game buddy all day which is so exhausting! I never gave Laine the credit she deserved for entertaining Eve. By the end of the day when I leave for class or work, I'm already drained. Last week, I dozed off with James for half an hour and when I woke up, six of my fingernails had sparkly nail polish on them. Other than being really busy, life is good.

Updates on Life

Here's the latest on what's going on in our little family. Last week, Eve suffered another terrible haircut. This time she was not the victim of her elder sister's aspirations to be a hair stylist. It was self-inflicted. Below is a picture of our newly bobbed little Eve after a real hair stylist fixed it.

Secondly, I feel like we've been neglecting our sweet baby James in our blog posts lately, so here he is, my cute baby boy:

Chris and Laine are getting ready to dive into some birthday cake. Laine, by the way, just poked her head in our bedroom to announce that she was so cold she got the goofbumps. That's pretty accurate, I'd say.James is getting a workout with Chris's new birthday weights. We decided we could use a little toning up. Here he is below lifting like a fourth of his body weight. And here he is devouring some cake. I'm relieved to announce that Laine has still refrained from becoming a kindergarten drop out. We just got a litte visit from my aunt, Laine's emo-halmoni. Laine was super excited to have her pick her up and drop her off at the bus stop.Laine's teacher asked us for a photo of our family for Laine to keep at school and I realized we haven't taken one since James was born, so our lovely neighbor Ms. Joan took this snapshot for us today. And that's the five minute update. Sorry this post wasn't very entertaining. I have a ton of studying to do for an exam tomorrow, but hopefully the pictures of cute kids makes up for the lack in editorial content.

They're supposed to be asleep!

But instead, they're talking nonsense and having the time of their lives:

Eve: My face looks so automatically cute!
Laine: HAhaha let's hide!
Eve: I seeeeee youuuuuu OW!
Laine: Sorry! I'm very very sorry. I wish my name were A-E-I-O-U then it could be aaeeeiooo
Eve: Yeah and I wish my name were A-E-I-O-U-Y
Laine: Yeah and I wish my name was A-E-I-O-U-Y
Eve: Yeah then we could be twins. Hey, and do I look cute in these pajamas?
Laine: Here, I'm gonna whisper something in your ear. *whisper* *giggles* now don't tell that to anyone else.
Eve: *whisper* HEHEHEHE Now don't tell that to anyone else.
*more whispers*
Eve: That was a funny whisper! Let me whisper something in your ear!
Laine: Come here, I'll whisper something in your ear.
Eve: No, I want it to be the end.
Laine: No! I want it to be more.
Eve: Fine, one more whisper.
*whisper whisper whisper*
Both: HEHEHAHAHAHAHA
Laine: You said it was time for a party in the night time. Ok let me give my last whisper to you!
Both: HEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Eve: I can't believe you said I'm an eyeball-head!! That was so funny!
Laine: Ok I'll whisper one last or maybe two last jokes in your year. Ok how 'bout one more.
Eve: I'm not a flower head. I want to tell you a joke not in your ear. Why did the cock-a-doodle-doo crawl in the window and broked my sign that says 'Do not wet the bed' and turn into a giant monster?
Both: *laughing too hysterically to deliver the punchline*
Laine: Let's read the book "The boy who loves dumplings."
Eve: Help! Help! I lost my dress! Hehehee I live in a treehouse! Hehehehe I lost my mommy on an outing. hehehehe Was that funny?
Laine: No. Let's do one, two, buckle my shoe taking turns. I want to say the part that goes "Three, four, shut the door" so that means you have to start.
Eve: One, two buckle my shoe
Laine: Three, four, shut the door
Eve: Five, six, pick up sticks
Laine: Seven, eight, lay them straight
Eve: Nine, Ten, do it again!
Laine: Yeah, except let's not do it again.
Eve: Okay, nine, ten, don't do it again!
Laine: Do you want me to make you a bed?
Eve: Okay!!! Make one for my pretend friend too
Laine: Ok, I'm gonna make it right here on the floor and your pretend friend's is gonna be right over here. Does the bed fit you?
Eve: Umm, yeah but my pretend friend says she wants to snuggle me, so..
Laine: Eve! Just don't listen to your pretend friend, alright? Listen to me. I'm making your bed cozy.
Eve: Umm well my pretend friend says she's gonna die if she doesn't snuggle me.
Laine: Oh, well that's good because you don't like her, right?
Eve: NO! That's bad because I do like her! My pretend friend is gonna die if she doesn't have me, the queen of sleep, snuggle her.
Laine: Oooh I like the jewels of your queen of sleep crown!
Eve: Don't touch my jewels!!
Laine: You're not the boss of me! Please can I touch just one of them?
Eve: You just touched the not-sister-liking square. Now I don't like you.
Laine: *touch* How 'bout now?
Eve: Oh, yes! You touched the extra sister-liking jewel. Now I like you a lot!

We're OK

The edge of one of those hurricaney things last week brushed by our neighborhood. It rained for a day and a night and a day and it was real windy, but we hunkered down inside for most of it and we were just fine. We did lose phone and internet for about three days, which was real rough, but compared to folks who had their houses blow away I guess we did alright.

Laine is still going to kindergarten, but she plans to drop out any day now, except on the days when she really, really, really, really likes going to kindergarten. She did get busted for laying too many smooches on one of the boys in her class, she probably would have gotten away with it but he was crying for help while she was all over him. At least she still hasn't been sent to the principal's office. Any day now though.

The other kids are doing great, they're enjoying the bonus mom attention while Laine is away at school. Christine got them a fun Noah's Ark play set, with a boat and a whole slew of wooden animals that they play with all day. James is getting quite a few of the animal sounds down and likes to roar a lot. He's still not much for people sounds like words yet though.

Anyway, it's my birthday, happy birthday to me.

Laine is off to school

So around six this morning we were awakened by a very excited Laine who wanted to know if it was time for school to start yet. We said no and went back to sleep. Around six fifteen this morning we were awakened by a very excited Laine who wanted to know if it was time for school to start yet. We said no and went back to sleep. Around six thirty this morning we were awakened by a very excited Laine who wanted to know if it was time for school to start yet. We said no and went back to sleep. Around six forty-five this morning we were awakened by a very excited Laine who wanted to know if it was time for school to start yet. We said no and went back to sleep. Around seven this morning we were awakened by a very excited Laine who wanted to know if she could have breakfast. We told her to eat the yogurt in the fridge and went back to sleep. You can probably guess how the rest of the morning went.

Finally, almost three hours after the fuzzy-headed little beast started her morning campaign to get to school, it was time to see her off at the school bus for her first day of kindergarten. The schools here apparently stock themselves on crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue sticks and the like by having each kindergartner haul their weight in school supplies into class the first day.




I was pretty sure Christine was going to have streamers and party hats ready to break out as soon as she was gone, ready to celebrate the advent of a wonderful new era of only having two small monkeys climbing on her during the day instead of three. I was totally wrong. Christine had little tears in the corners of her eyes as she watched Laine's bus take off up the road to the school. I still don't understand this whole motherhood thing, I'm glad she's got it figured out.

Anyway, the day went by and I ducked out of work a little early to pick Laine up at the bus stop and take her out for a little ice cream.

It took her about an hour and a half, but she finally explained how she almost got sent to the principal's office the first day for throwing a fit about not having a packed lunch in her backpack. Apparently, explaining the lunch system to her three times before sending her to school just wasn't enough. We'll go through it another half dozen times in the morning and also pack her a lunch, just in case. We don't want her to get busted until at least day three. She went back and forth between being ecstatic about going back to school tomorrow and deciding that school was boring and she was never going back more times than I could count, so we may or may not have to toss her on the bus and run in the morning to get her to go. On the up side, I think she believed me when I told her if she didn't go to school the police would come and take her to jail, so hopefully she won't kick and scream too much if the bus arrives just when she decides again never to ever ever ever go to school again ever ever.

On a more spiritual note, we did a Father's Blessing for her last night, the night before school started. It was great. When it was finished, Laine turned to me and told me that right in the middle she got a feeling inside that made her so, so, so happy. Christine was crying a little for that one too. One of the better spiritual outpourings our little family has experienced lately, it's nice to have moments like that to remind us that the church isn't just something we go to on Sunday.

A Small Sampling of the Goofy Things Eve Has Said Recently

As you all know, Eve is as silly as could be. Here are a few of the goofy comments she made last week:

1) When my friend, Krista, was watching Eve and James during Laine's open house, Eve gave her a tour of the house. When they walked past this chair (this is a picture of it from our old house):
Eve said, "And this is the Papa chair"
Krista: "Oh, is it called that because your dad likes to sit there?"
Eve: "Nope. That's just it's name."

2) Last week I took Eve to Target and let her pick out some stickers. She picked out some butterfly ones and when we got home, she started to put them in a notebook leaving lots of pages between each sticker. Her comment was "I'm giving my butterflies lots of personal space." Oh if only she would do that for people too.

3) When we last visited Salt Lake, Grandma got the girls some matching dresses. As we were getting ready for church yesterday, both the girls picked out this dress. Eve burst into tears and couldn't be consoled. We told them how cute they both look in it, but Eve sobbed, "Our Sunday School teachers won't be able to tell us apart!!!" We offered to style their hair in different hair-dos so that they could each be distinctive, and explained that the Laine being a whole head taller would make it pretty easy to tell them apart, but this didn't appease her. Finally, I made a name tag for Eve that said, "I am Eve. NOT Laine." This made her very happy and they went to church in the matching dresses.

4) We recently finished reading the BFG by Roald Dahl and last week I was drinking some Perrier in the dining room. When I got up to do something in the kitchen, Eve, grinning ear-to-ear, took a giant gulp of my Perrier. When she burped, her face fell, and she said disappointedly, "Awww, I wanted the bubbles to go down so I could do a whizzpopper." If the terms 'whizpopper' and 'frobscottle' don't mean anything to you, you'll have to read the BFG.

And a bonus goofball comment from Laine:

A couple of days ago, Laine discovered where the tooth fairy hides her teeth after she collects them: Right in Mom's jewelry box (oops)! So she gets a bright idea and says, "Hey! I know! I'm gonna take these and put them under my pillow again to trick the tooth fairy into giving me more dollars." Sure, Laine. That would totally work if the tooth fairy was a complete idiot, which she's NOT!