letter d

Last night I was saying prayers with Danny before he went to bed. As usual, I started with the "thankful fors." Daddy, Danny, Cate, the cats. Then I paused. He usually wants to add his two cents during this part. I know that's not the proper protocol for praying. He's two. I'm not going to just ignore him and plow on through until the amens are said. We'll get there. At least we're praying, right?

Here's how the "thankful for" part went.

And baby Ruh-dee.
And baby Rusty.
And Doozy.
And Judy.
No, Doozy!
And Suzy.
And Unka Don.
And Uncle John.
And Doodee, Unka Bave, Diss, Det.
And Judy, Uncle Dave, Kris and Jarrett.
And Doodee.
And Judy.

Then I continued on with the prayer uninterrupted, happy to know that he's extra thankful for his Aunt Judy.

As I climbed into my own bed, I got to thinking. Danny seems to be very fond of the letter D. He seems to substitute it at the beginning of many words. Doozy, Doody, Det, Diss, Don. He also says Dy-ler instead of Skyler, Dough-knee instead of Tony and Date instead of Cate.

If he's got so many D's to go where they don't belong, then why is it that he says Daddy and Danny correctly, but Uncle Dave gets turned into Unka Bave?

I don't have the slightest i-deee-a.

she's mobile

Cate performed her first act of genuine crawling today.
Actually, she may have done it earlier while I wasn't looking. I'll never know. I don't spend all her waking hours staring at her, although I'm sure she'd like me to.

She's been getting around for the past few weeks by leaning way over and then sitting back up. Somehow this has scooted her around the floor. If she falls over and lands on her tummy, she can sit back up.

Now that she can crawl, I can stop worrying about the fact that she has rolled over only twice in her entire life. I guess she just wasn't interested. She's moved on to bigger and better things.

And getting into EVERYTHING.

legos

Jarrett flopped down hard on the couch and bonked his head on the armrest.
He rubbed the sore spot and said,

"If we were made of LEGOs,
that would have broke my head off."

So true. Good thing we're not.

driving license

"Oh, so that's how you turn it," Jarrett said, as I made a left-hand turn on the drive to school yesterday. I didn't realize he'd been watching my hands on the steering wheel. I gave him a little lesson about "ten and two" and how to use the turn signal.

"I can't wait until I can get my driving license. How old will I be?"

I let him know that he had a good ten years before that would happen. He didn't seem daunted at all, more like he was willing to wait for something so good.

"How old will Kris be when I'm sixteen?"

"Kris will be fourteen. Danny will be twelve and Cate will be ten." As I said those words I tried to picture what the little kids in the car seats behind me would look like in a decade. I can't even imagine.

"When I have my driving license I can drive Danny and Cate to school. Then you can have your job and you won't have to worry about them." I'm not sure what job he's talking about. I've never mentioned anything like that to him before. I thought it was very sweet of him to want to help with my kids though.

I guessed that he hadn't quite realized that his schooling would continue well past first grade. I filled him in on the fact that he'd be going to school every morning until he was a little bit past his eighteenth birthday.

He sat quietly and thought about that for a few seconds.

"Then I can drive them to school when I'm grown up like you." I had to chuckle. In thirty years, when Jarrett is a grown up like me, Danny will be thrity-two and Cate will be thirty.

I am seriously hoping they won't still need rides to school. They'll have their own driving licenses. I told Jarrett that they wouldn't need help by then but that he could maybe help drive Cate's kids to school.

He looked out the window and said with a smile, "Cool."

a little fun

It's all fun and games

until

the mean old mommy


moves the computer out of reach


one too many times.

boo hoo

with child

That's me.

October 29, 2006
7:17 p.m.

Danny's inside that ginormous pink dome.
He was born 22 days later.

I was scrolling through the 5,263 photos currently stored in iPhoto on my computer. I'm trying to decide which ones to delete. 5,263 photos seems like a bit much.

I came across this one and it gave me a little chuckle.
I won't be deleting it. It gets to stay.

And in case anyone's wondering, the only childs I am with right now are sound asleep in their beds. I'm not trying to make any hints at some big announcement.
Just sharing a funny picture.

ten

My baby is ten months old today.

To celebrate, I give you ten snapshots of her day.
Actually, all the pictures were taken this afternoon and evening after waking from a good nap.
She had a rough morning.

p.s. Check out the action in our backyard this evening!
Danny was in tractor-lovin' heaven.

more love

Here's the conversation I had with Danny this morning.

Danny, I love you.

Oh, I wuv Daddy and Date and you!

Who does Aunt Suzy love?

Aunt Doozy wuv Bama!
(Not Grama Bama, just Grandma.
Danny actually calls her Nother One Bama.)

Who does Billy love?

Ummmm...Unka Don
(That must mean John.
There's no Uncle Don that I'm aware of.)

Who does Uncle John love?

Unka Don wuv Dilly!

Who does baby Rusty love?

Ummmm...Date

Who does Kris love?

Dis wuv Doo-dee!
(that's Judy, of course)

Who does Uncle Tim love?

Ummmm...Unka Dough-knee
(Uncle Tony with a D)

Who does Ethan love?

Abby!

That's all I've got. He walked away after the last question. Love can be boring sometimes. Or is it the family? Whatever. He's two. Everything's boring after fifteen seconds.

you a lady

A few days ago I took Danny to the grocery store with me. As soon as I found a parking spot, Danny looked out his window and found the cart. You know the one. It's a humongous pink butterfly car stuck on the end of a shopping cart.

I hate those carts. They're huge and hard to maneuver around the aisles. Stick a kid in it and he can reach everything. It takes away my parental controls. Danny loves it. I give two thumbs down to whoever invented them. (It was probably some man who never goes to the grocery store with small children.)

I strapped Danny in as best I could and entered the store. He turned that little steering wheel like he was zooming down the track at the Indy 500. He didn't do much honking but boy did he steer.

For the most part, he resisted grabbing everything within his reach. I did my best to stay smack dab in the middle of the aisles. I only had to wrestle a small bag of noodles away from him. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I imagined.

That is, until we got to the checkout. That's where they have all those little goo-gahs that they hope you'll buy at the last minute. Danny grabbed for a toothbrush. I said, "No, Danny. The lady said don't touch." I don't know who the lady is, but it usually works to say that someone else says no.

As I unloaded the contents of our cart, Danny did his best to load up his pink butterfly car with a deck of cards, some dental floss, a package of batteries and a mini cookbook. I put them all back and told him that the lady said no.

He looked up at me through the back window of his car and said, "Mama, you a lady?"

I said, "Yes, I'm a lady."

He laughed and said, "Noooooooooo! You not a lady!"

It's good to know what he thinks of me.

As for the picture, that's Danny being very unladylike while eating his Tic-Tacs. I think I'm the one who put those in the cart. If not, Danny just got the five finger discount.

name that baby

On Cate's dresser there is a picture frame. It has twelve little circles around the border and one big one in the center. Inside the circles are pictures of Cate, starting at birth and then progressing through the months of her life. So far I've filled in the first ten circles (birth plus months one through nine).

A few days ago Danny was in Cate's bedroom with me while I changed her diaper. He pulled over the little rocking chair and stood on it so he could get a better look at the pictures.

He pointed to Cate's most recent picture and said, "Mama, who dat?"

I said, "That's Cate." Then I pointed to her month eight picture and said, "Who's that?"

He positively identified his little sister. I pointed to month seven. He said, "Dat baby Rusty." Interesting. I continued with months six, five, four and three. Each time, "Dat baby Date."

Then I pointed to month two and asked again. "Dat baby Rusty." Month one? "Dat baby Rusty." Birth? That was his baby sister again.

So here is baby Rusty.
He was only six days old in this picture. I'd use a more recent one but he's sporting a big pink flower in them. This one seemed more appropriate.

And here's the month one picture of Cate that Danny identified as baby Rusty.

And the month two picture.

And month seven.

So what was Danny thinking?
Can you see a resemblance?

Other than being the two cutest babies in his life.

sick again

Darn those ears!

When Danny was Cate's age, he was working on his seventh ear infection.

She's on her second.

Don't let that toothy grin fool you.
She's been feeling lousy.

And in case anyone was wondering,
she was weighed at the doctor's office today
and tipped the scales at 18 pounds 7 ounces.
She was fully clothed though.

How much do baby clothes weigh anyway?

hippity hoppity

My little Easter bunnies

boo hoo

Here's what I got to listen to on the ride home from Grandma's last night.(Yes, I am an evil mother for making a video of my inconsolable children. I admit it.)

It was almost comical.
Almost.

Danny was originally upset because he wanted to go back to Grandma's house. After he got started, everything I did or said ticked him off even more. Cate was tired. She was probably ticked off at me too.

At times, Danny would stop crying. Then Cate would stop too. Danny would say (in a whiny voice), "Date not dying (crying) any more." Upon hearing his voice, Cate would start again. Then Danny would cry, "Date dying!"

I plugged my ears. It didn't lessen the pain.
It's times like this that I wish we lived closer.

Serenity now.

jarrett's sixth, part two

More birthday fun
(on his actual birthday this time)

He'd already had a beautiful violet cake so I went with standard white with sprinkles this time. When he made his wish he whispered pretty loudly and made exaggerated lip movements. (Does that make sense? I guess you just had to be there.) It was pretty cute. I'd say he's a lucky kid to get to make birthday wishes twice.

After dinner and cake we headed outside. Dan played baseball with the kids. Cate mostly just watched and practiced her clapping skills. It looked like she was being a little cheerleader.

It's a good thing Kris knows there is a position called catcher. It's not such a good thing that he almost never catches the ball. That could be the pitcher's fault though.

I don't know what Dan was saying to Kris in this picture. It must have been something funny. Look at the expression on Kris' face. I love it! Dan's got a pretty good expression on his face too.

Later we came inside for a little Guitar Hero. Danny said he wanted to rock so Dan gave him a turn.

Danny said, "Look, Mama! Me rocking!"
Looks like Dan is too!

footwear

This is what happens when I say

Everybody get your shoes on!
It's time to go!

snow boots
on the wrong feet
no socks

I give him an A for effort.

I would have let him leave the house like that.
This weather has been very unpredictable.
He took them off on his own just as we were
attempting to walk out the door.

Perfect timing.
I can't wait for flip flops weather.

egg hunt

We went to a little get-together at my neighbor's house yesterday. Not only is Candis a photographer extraordinaire, she is also the hostess with the mostess. Yummy food, adorable decorations and napkins folded like bunny ears.

We strolled over to her house in time for Jarrett to have about 15 minutes of play. That wasn't enough for him. He wanted to stay home from kindergarten. I said no. After a little toilet trauma, we made it out the door and were off to school.

I left Danny and Kris playing in the yard. Cate was sitting in the lap of another mom. I returned just in time to hear a somewhat disturbing conversation. It went something like this:

Mom 1: Who are we looking for?
Mom 2: Danny.
Mom 1: Which one is that?
Mom 2: He's wearing a blue shirt.
Mom 3: Danny, where are you?

I wasn't surprised. Danny tends to wander. Just then, the door to the house opened and out came my little man.

We ate lunch on blankets on the front lawn. I got my first sunburn of the season. Kris climbed trees. Danny threw rocks into the little fountain. Cate sucked on an empty Capri Sun.

After much playing outside, all ten kids were trapped in the house while most of the moms helped the Easter Bunny hide eggs. I was on inside duty with another mom. She told me she had seen my family's pictures on Candis' website and that my boys (she thought Kris was mine) were beautiful. How nice. They are.

Then it was time for the hunt to begin. Kris knew what to do. Danny did not. I followed him around pointing to the "hidden" eggs. He picked them up, opened them, dumped the candy contents into his bag (after saying WOW every time) and then threw the empty eggs on the ground.

Cate was being a good sport. I knew she was way past tired though. After I had picked up all of Danny's empty eggs, we said our thank yous and good-byes and headed home for naps. I told Danny to say good-bye and he did, very quietly. Then he said, "They not talking to me, Mama. They mouth is shut."

Candis said she wants to make this a yearly tradition. I'm just hoping by the time the Second Annual Easter Egg Hunt Shindig rolls around, the yard is fenced in...assuming we're invited back. I'm getting too old to chase around my meandering child.

Now I'm off to learn how to fold those bunny ear napkins.

do-rag

Cate was sitting on my bed watching me fold laundry.
Danny was rummaging through Dan's drawers.
He found this do-rag.
I bet you didn't know Dan owns a do-rag. He does.

Danny handed it to Cate and said,

"Look, Date. Me find you pirate hat.
Say arrrrrr!"

jarrett's sixth, part one

Dan has a birthday week every year. (One day is not sufficient to truly celebrate his mother's wonderful gift to the world.) It looks like Jarrett is catching on. He had a long birthday weekend. I'm pretty sure Jarrett hasn't figured out how to get the most out of his extended birthday though. Dan can give him some pointers for next year.

Jarrett had his party at the Legacy Center on Thursday. I made the cake. He wanted carrots on it and showed me where they should go. He also put the flowers on it. They are left over from Judy's wedding cake. That means those little dried fondant flowers are almost 9 years old! He chose purple too. I mixed it with white and he loved the "violet" (that's what he called it) that appeared after some stirring. So that is why this little boy has a light purple cake.

How about a little look back on all the cakes I've made for Jarrett over the past five years.

Fifth birthday: SpongeBob Square Pants
(Don't laugh. I did my best.
I was pregnant and had a 16-month-old
running around getting into everything.
I had a hard time concentrating.)

Fourth birthday: R2D2
(my favorite...and the most work)

Third birthday: a green fish
(It's still his favorite color.)

Second birthday: a truck
(Judging by the look on his face,
I'm not so sure he approved of this one.)

First birthday: a ball
(The frosting melted and started sliding off
the cake on the drive to Heber.)

Back to the party...

The boys played basketball.
Millie and Danny pushed Cate around.

Cate continued to perfect her startled look.

We ate pizza.

One out of three actually smiled for the picture.

Danny continued to perfect his tired look.
He probably opted out of his nap that day.

We sang to Jarrett.
Danny tried to make Dan stop singing.

Jarrett opened presents.
Danny gave him Lincoln Logs.
(linking logs according to Kris,
ginkin gogs according to Danny)

After the cake and presents
we all headed to the pool.
Hopefully the tubes didn't let
too much water into Danny's ears.

Danny splashed around for a while.
Then he rested.

Cate and I just watched.
She got rosy cheeks from the
rainforest-like conditions.

A good time was had by all.