Vocabulary Building

A nursery tale (courtesy of Sis. Williams):

I guess Ally was running around the nursery room and Sis. Williams asked her to stop running.

Ally kept on running.

When asked again to stop running, Ally replied brightly, 'I'm not running, I'm jogging!'

Tasks for this week will now include teaching Ally other words to use to alternately describe what is ascribed to her, such as 'trotting,' 'loping,' 'sashaying,' and perhaps 'fast-moseying.'

She will make a fine lawyer some day!

Pioneer Trekkies

As I was driving some youth and a leader to the Columbus temple on Saturday, the leader and I got on the topic of long driving trips with kids.

We each exchanged our most vivid war stories (VHS and DVD players were always the Medal of Honor-winning heroes), and then, in a fit of brilliance, I made the following comment:

'Cindy and I have considered driving out to Utah and back a number of times. Then we pick ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard. Yep, if we were to ever to do that we would be emulating the pioneers of old in the trek to Utah--we would be burying a child every couple hundred miles!'

Okay, okay------maybe 'twisted brilliance' would have been a more apt description. And I probably chuckled harder than the leader did--but then again, I know my kids and the PQ* of both parental units.

*Patience Quotient

A Fond Welcome

Yesterday I took off an hour early from work to go home and work on the basement.

I quietly walked in from the garage to the kitchen, hoping to surprise Cindy. I saw her back as she was busily working at the stove.

I said, ‘Hi!’ and she slowly turned around to face me.

Her face and eyes were all red, with large tears were dripping down her cheeks--she had obviously been sobbing big-time--and she immediately put her hand up to stop me from talking and simply stated, ‘I can’t be around you right now!’ and then after a slight pause, asked, ‘Where are you going to be?’

Remaining mute, I pointed down towards the basement, and then she went on, ‘I can’t be in the same room as you right now.’

She then proceeded to quickly march out the garage door.

When I looked out 20 minutes later she was sitting in the passenger seat of the van, her face still red and her eyes heavy with tears.

She gave me a slight smile, and then leaned forward slightly as she continued to listen intently to the final chapter of the audio-book* on her I-Pod.

Obviously, thoughts of hearing my condescendingly good-natured chortles at her emotional state that would most assuredly be wafting in around her earbuds would not have been conducive to her enjoyment[?] of the denouement.

*The Book Thief

All she needs is a big dog named Hercules!

Cindy was looking for a book tonight, and she had the bright idea of looking under Erin's bed.

As she later told Erin, 'I became violently ill, and after hypergagging I staggered downstairs to get a rabies shot before any animal that might have burrowed into all that junk jumped out and bit me!'

She said some other witty things too, but alas, I can't remember them....

Erin jest smiled on in her trademarked serene complacence regarding all things related to the nouveau-junkyard decorating she has perfected in her room.

(Feel free to guess at the movie reference in the title....though it may take you Forever, FOR-E-VER, FOR-E-VER to guess it....)

Ostrich Obeisance

I would like to say that Ally is unsullied by her siblings' behavior, but nay, twould be a lie!

As I was getting ready to put Ally to bed, she said, 'I want to say my prayers!'

'Ahh,' I thought, 'She IS still a sweet angel!'

I put her down and she immediately dropped to her knees, then immediately followed this by putting her head down on the floor, and by mid-prayer she was laid out fully prone on the floor, arms akimbo. (It brought back memories of a chapter in Les Miserables that described how nuns in the convent prayed before the altar....)

Needless to say, if you are ever at our house at family prayer time, you will think that you somehow ended up on an ostrich farm--the kids have their heads on the floor and their patooties up in the air.

I guess Cindy and I could interpret this as them kowtowing to us in abject obeisance, but hey, we aren't that deluded!

Maybe it has something to do with gravity. their heads are sure swelled up enough--at least in their own little whacked-out minds!

Anyway, I look forward to the day that Erin gets to give a prayer during sacrament meeting--hopefully the mike will poke her in the forehead before she can lay her head down on the podium!

A Fruitless Morning....

It is now my lunch hour, and what am I doing? I am at my desk working with a phone glued to my ear (which makes typing this a wee bit more difficult...)

The other end is mostly silent, punctuated at times by screams. No, it is not 1-800-MASOCHISM, it is Ally.

Cindy started potty-training her a week ago Friday, with stellar results. At least in the No. 1 category. In the other category, her streak has been more spotty. (Or should I say, her potty has been more streaked? Her streak has been more potty?')

Anyway, at Ally's bleating request this is the second time I have been coaching her by phone. Being in a cubicle farm, I try to do so unobtrusively.

Much as I would like to belt out my patented sideline (side-bowl?) chant of 'Poop It Out! Poop It Out! WAAAAAAY OUT!' , I refrain, as co-workers would look at me even more strangely.

So I am left uttering merely vague phrases, such as 'C'mon Ally, you can do it!' and 'C'mon! You're a big girl!'

But it is to no avail today--she just screams back at me, 'NO I CAN'T!' and 'NO I'M NOT!'

Last Friday went much better--I spent a good 30 minutes cajoling, coaching, and cheerleading, and in the end it exited her end.

She will either have a diaper on soon (as an eruption is very imminent), or she will succeed.

It looks like we will all have to wait and see!

Luck of the Irish ahead!

Today was a rather cloudy, gloomy day--until about 7:20 PM, when it began clearing out and resulted in this:



We were looking at it through our back window, but our good neighbors across the street also saw it and took all these photos.

I put two of them together to give you an even better perspective.



My side of the family is supposedly from Ireland, so maybe this will lead to good luck--at the very least we will devour our usual corned beef and cabbage stew with even greater gusto on the upcoming St. Patrick's Day!

Counterfeit Genius

As a follow-up to Cindy's previous post, tonight I showed Erin how to do a load of laundry.

When they were done, I had her pull out the jeans and sweatjacket she wanted to wear tomorrow. When I turned around, I noticed that she had hung her jeans over the laundry room door--right over the top of a pair of already dried pants. And since our bedroom door was the closest, she had draped her sweatjacket over it.

Seeing another teaching moment, I told Erin to take them down and drape them over the chairs in the dining room and then place the chairs near the heat vents.

She rolled her eyes, so I took the opportunity to take the jeans and her jacket, walk over to the stairs, and drop them down to the first floor.

She didn't like that so much, but I had other things to do, so I walked back into the bedroom.

Awhile later I could hear Erin out in the hallway--it sounded like she was writing something.

When Cindy got back from Choco-Chicks (I hear it was quite the feast! And why isn't there a Wings Kings or a Hot-Subby Hubby or Crunch Chumps group?), I went down to greet her, and I found a number of notes lying around on the floor around Erin's wet clothes.

There was the usual, 'Please come to my room when you get home' note, but my favorite was the following:

"Cindy,
Please hang these clothes up for Erin.
Preferably on chairs in the kitchen.
They need to dry.
Thanks,
Lou"

Erin finally did come down and hang them up--it was another way to stay up later!

Ownership

Last night Erin came home from basketball practice at 9:15 or so. Having had a long day and needing my quiet time I directed her to bed. Nearly 30 minutes later she still was not in bed and wanting to sit downstairs for a while. This was our conversation:

Me: "No Erin. I really want you to go to bed. It is almost 10:00 and you will be tired in the morning. You will also be mad because you have not done your laundry and won't have anything to wear."

Erin: "That is your job."

Me: "I am not going to do your laundry if you don't take care of your clothes."

Erin: "Ummmm......who bought the clothes?"

Me: "I did."

Erin: (While pointing to her head [where her brain should be]) "U Huh! Thas Right! It's all up here."

As she walked away I chuckled imagining her going to school in the morning wearing only the clothes that belonged to her, because she bought them herself. She would undoubtedly be very cold!

Meatball Sandwiches

Thanks go to my friend Jill for inspiring me to make these sandwiches for dinner. They were so good. I used my own recipe for bread and I found a Subway Marinara sauce online in a google search. We mixed it with some spaghetti sauce added some cheese and it was so good.

Cameron's eyes lit up when I told him what we were having for dinner because he LOVES and always asks for Meatball sandwiches from Subway. He was not disappointed.