Back to the Drawing Board my Sweet Boy

Cara was building a lego/bath toy tower when it suddenly toppled down. "Oh well, back to the drawing board," she sighed. I love listening to my kids developing language. When Cara talks I can hear phrases she got from Eli, Kelly, me and Joel. "A litle help here," is her favorite way to ask for assistance. She got that from Joel, but where he picked it up I don't know.

"Mommy, how can I save the world if I don't have a cape?" Also from Cara. If only it were that simple.

We went to Joel's hip hop recital today. He did really well especially considering he's totally uncoordinated and he's never had a dance class before, but he held his own. He was really nervous about it.

Last week when I told him it was time to go to class he started crying. Not unusual as transitions are difficult for Joel and if his mind is in the middle of something he has a really hard time accepting the change in routine. Usually he calms down in less than a minute or two and psyches himself up for the next activity by bucking up and resolutely saying, "I'll do it!"

But last week he kept crying and crying. I kept encouraging him to tell me what was wrong, but he couldn't. So I asked questions, "Are the kids mean?" "Is the teacher mean?". He shook his head no, but was still too upset to be able to verbalize and vocalize his feelings. Finally I asked if he could write his feelings down for me. I thought he would say no because he hates writing, but instead he proceeded to write me a note. That he readily accepted the writing "assignment" told me that he was feeling something deeply that he really wanted me to understand.

"Even though you try to make a healthy body for me and the kids understand, I still wanna take a break from hip hop. I'm not enjoying it. It's TOO much for me."

I felt really bad after reading it. I know I need to push Joel (or he'd never get off the couch), but was I pushing him too hard? I felt especially bad that he'd said he wasn't enjoying it. I told him we could definitely skip hop hop that day, and he let out a big sigh of relief and said through tears, "Thanks for understanding me mom." Ooooh, little pang to the heart, what a precious boy. I did ask him after he'd calmed down if he thought he could go next week (today) for the final performance, and he gulped and said yes.

So we went today. Joel was teary again, but he'd resolved to do it, so he was gonna. After all was said and done and I could tell Joel was proud of himself, I realized he wasn't enjoying the class because he was so stressed that he wasn't doing the dance perfectly. I know Joel has anxiety, but I don't always realize how much stress he feels in certain circumstances. I bolded and capitalized the word "too" from Joel's note because that's how he wrote it. While writing it he was gritting his teeth and bearing down on the pen as hard as he could.

While I do feel back that so felt so much stress. I'm glad he finished it out and came through feeling that it wasn't so bad afterall and that he'd licked it!

Tipsy Joel?

We actually had Family Home Evening last Monday and had a lesson about the Word of Wisdom. Of course we discussed the things that are appropriate and healthy for our bodies and the things that are not. We told the kids that one of the reasons we don't drink alcohol is because it effects the clarity of our minds. Eli chose Love One Another as our closing song and Joel chose to sing his own Joel gibberish version of it which gave him the giggles. When we finished the song I said, "Hmmm, someone was singing a very interesting version of Love One Another" to which Eli replied, "I think Joel's been drinking the wine."

Cracked Kelly and me up! And of course Eli wasn't even trying to be funny which makes it even funnier.

Pigtails, Music and Hip Hop

I put Cara's hair in braids today and told her how cute she looked with her pigtails. "I don't have a pig tail Mommy" she said wiggling her little derriere in front of me. "Pigs live on farms."

Randomly today Eli tells me "I'm always on top of it in music Mom, I always get a 5." I love how he just assumes that I know all the rules and protocol in music class.

Joel's currently enrolled in a hip hop dance class. I can't wait til they have their recital so I can watch him bust a move.

Out of the Mouths of my Babes

Cara: Mommy! My golden hair is turning brown!

Eli: Mommy are there still pirates or are they extinct?

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?