Baddest! Goodest!

"You're the baddest mommy in the world!" Eli shouted at me the other day when I made him share his snack with Cara. The kids and I were all in the car headed home from basketball and Cara shouted back at Eli "Mommy's nice!"

Eli: "No! She's the baddest mommy in the world."

Joel who never likes to see anyone disparage me shouted back, "She's the goodest mommy in the world!"

Eli: "Baddest!"

Joel & Cara: "Goodest!"

"Baddest!"

"Goodest!"

"Baddest!"

"Goodest!"

This exchange continued for about five minutes . . . I'm glad two of my three children think I'm the goodest :o)

Twice as Hot

Joel's primary teacher gave him a box of those "message hearts" the Sunday before Valentine's Day. He opened the box and said the first one was for me, it's message read "TOO HOT". 10 or so minutes later I'm lying on my bed doing my "after 2 hours of Sunbeams" cool down when Eli bursts in with another candy heart and says, "Mom, Joel says this one's for you." It also read "TOO HOT." After I'd finally caught my "free-from-three-year-olds" breath I ventured out into the hallway where Joel accosts me shouting, "Mom! You're twice as hot cuz you got TOO HOT twice!"

Yeah!

Kelly told me that Eli made a basket in the big boy basket at b ball on Saturday.

ME: So you made a basket in the big basket?

ELI: Yeah, did you hear about it? (I love how he assumes that the news of his basket has gotten around :o)

Pushing off one handed from the shoulder like Daddy taught him, Eli was disappointed that he didn't hit the basket initially. Daddy told him to jump while doing the same thing and . . . voila, SWISH! "Now I know the secret Mommy, you hafta jump." Oh, if only I'd known that back in the day I might have been able to make more baskets myself.

Of late . . .

Tuesday at play group Cara picked up a toy piano, turned to one of the moms and said, "Each note makes a different sound. Listen." I don't think I heard any differentiation in notes until I was much older. My mom said I was completely tone deaf until I was 12. I took piano lessons one year in high school, the teacher would play some notes and ask me if they were in a major or minor key. I got it right about 50% of the time. :) I'm pretty sure my kids could all hear that distinction already. All of my children have more natural musical talent than I do. Yea! Of course I want my kids to surpass me in everything and it feels good when they do in any area :o)

Woke up feeling yucky this morning and have gotten almost nothing accomplished. Kelly generously passed on his sinus cold thing to me. Thanks honey! I'm sure I'll return the favor fairly soon. Poor Kelly, he took the kids sledding a week or so ago and he and Cara flipped going down one of the hills. Kelly's coat and body cushioned most of Cara's impact, but Kelly got whiplash and a sore back for his good daddy deeds. He went to the doctor yesterday where he was prescribed muscle relaxants. He tried to take one during his work day, but it completely wiped him out, so he's only using them at night. So far his pain really hasn't abated any, I'm hoping he starts to feel better real soon!

I taught Grace Arts in Joel's class yesterday. Joel really lights up when I'm there which makes it all worth while and then some. We learned about the British sculptor Henry Moore and the kids were really into it. They all wanted to share their ideas about what his abstract sculptures represented. Joel sat up front on his teacher's stool while I was teaching, grinning from ear to ear the whole time.

I help out weekly for art in Eli's kindergarten class. This week I was really struck again by how young Eli seems compared to most of his classmates. Of course he is probably the youngest one in his class. But even accounting for his young age his maturity level seems disproportionately low. When I told Miss Sue (his preschool teacher) that I was debating on whether or not to send him to kindergarten she told me that I could always have him repeat kindergarten if I felt it necessary. Well . . . . I was talking to another mom at Cara's dance class and she told me the school might give me flack about having him repeat if he meets the imposed benchmarks. I really feel like he does need to have another year of kindergarten and I will be so mad if the school gives me any crap about it because several school employees told me I could have him repeat if necessary, leading me to think that the choice was mine alone to make.

It's been so cold! I remember last summer thinking that winter chill is easier to deal with than summer heat because you can always put another layer on. Well, not so much. I layer myself up every day and still feel chilled to the bone and I keep my house at 72! Needless to say I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT FOR WARMER WEATHER.

My parents close on the selling of their house tomorrow. They'll finish up the semester in Albany and then they're headed to Cedar City. I hope they like it there. Belinda makes it sound like the Mecca for the closed minded, stupid and meth heads of the world. Maybe the chamber of commerce can adopt some o' that for a town slogan. "Cedar City the Meth Mecca of the West." It would attract a certain tourist niche.

We'll miss going out to Grandpa and Grandma's house in Luray. The kids always knew we were almost there when they could see the yellow tube slide. "I see the slide, we're at Grandma and Grandpa's house!" was the frequent and familiar refrain in the car.

I'll miss having my parents fairly nearby too. Family is so important and it seems crazy to live clear across the whole darn country from them. Kelly works from home now, so we could technically live anywhere, but moving to Utah doesn't feel right. My main concern is that poor Utah schools wouldn't have the funding to provide the help Joel needs in his education. Also I really do not want to live in a super Moromony environment. I like the diversity we get here. Who knows what the future holds for us?

"I'm a cub scout for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I can climb trees really high, I have a lot of cool dance moves." I overheard Joel introduce himself this way when he was pretending to be a contestant on one of his invented game shows. Loved hearing not only how he views himself, but what characteristics he wants to stress and impress upon others.

A great kid, Joel always makes us smile. This past year he learned to whistle and spent days doing nothing but (to the dismay of his teachers). In order to widen his whistling repertoire Kelly taught Joel the "wheet whew" whistle and told Joel that's the sound you make when you see a cute girl. Fast forward a couple of days and Joel and I are sitting on the couch, "Wheet whew!" whistles Joel, "That's what you are Mom!"

Love that kid.

Eli started kindergarten this past fall. The peace and quiet in the house was almost disconcerting. Almost. He loves school, his teacher and all his classmates. He's upset when vacation days arrive. Would be there seven days a week if possible. (Mommy would go for that too sometimes :o) Hopefully his endearment with school will last throughout his education. We'll see. He started soccer this year and loves it too. Eli can be very sweet at times and recently told me, "Mommy I always hug you really tight cuz I love you so much!"

Cara just turned three and rocks my world. She loves to tell me what's going on in her life and I am the most captive audience ever. Her interpretations of the world around her and its workings always amuse me. She's been in ballet this year, and there is nothing more adorable than your toddler in a tutu with a pink leotard stretching over her roly-poly tum tum and round little bum bum.

Kelly and I keep on keeping on. The kids keep us on our toes while he's busy keeping a roof over our heads and I'm trying to keep a steady supply of clean underwear available to all.

Hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

But Grandpa Was

Yesterday Eli and I were looking through my wedding pictures. It was fun to show him pictures of my grandparents and other relatives and friends who attended. I got to a picture of my parents, Kelly and me and asked him who was in the picture. "Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa." My mom still had dark hair and Eli said, "When you got married Grandma wasn't old yet." Then he paused, looked at my dad and said, "But Grandpa was."

Cracked me up.

Not too long ago I was ruffling through Joel's hair and said, "Boy we need to get you a haircut!"

"Yeah," Joel responded. "I don't want to turn into Rapunzel!"

Made me laugh. His comment was probably inspired by the movie Twisted, a current movie based on the long locked lady's famous story.

He still needs that haircut.

Hi I'm Joel

A couple of days ago I overheard Joel introducing himself on a pretend game show he had created. His intro went something like this, "Hi, I'm Joel Ethington, I'm a cub scout, I have a lot of cool dance moves and I can climb really high in trees." It's interesting to hear how he defines himself and I'm thrilled that he has such high confidence. I hope that's a characteristic that he never loses.

Cara saw me putting mascara on and said, "I wanna polish your eyelashes Mommy."

She's a character with personality plus. I can't quite figure out who she is going to be.

I'm way spoiled. Kelly took the kids grocery shopping today and hauled them all off to soccer. Then I went shopping all afternoon (the retail therapy kind) and then Kelly took all the kids to Microcenter with him when I got back. Then he had the gall to ask me to help him put them to bed. Je suis si sure!

The Dau of Eli

TODAY

Eli: "Mommy what if there was a boy and he needed to go potty, and he pointed his penis straight up and the pee pee went in his mouth?" (said with manic giddiness, wonder and awe for his own supposition)

Me: "That would be disgusting."

Eli: "Yeah cuz nobody likes to drink their own pee, not even Jesus."

Yeah.

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Eli: "Mommy, how old is Christopher Columbus?"

Me: "He's dead, but he lived about five or six hundred years ago."

Eli: "Yeah, but how OLD is he?"

Me: "He's dead . . . yada yada yada"

Eli: "Oh, you don't have birthdays in heaven?"

Me: "No."

Eli: "Oh, oh cuz you can't eat in heaven and on your birthday you have to eat cake or cupcakes, so you can't have birthdays in heaven."

Yeah.