Pay It Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. It won't be free though . . . in order to qualify you need to post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you've done it. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!

My Favorite Words

Davis is starting to talk up a storm, so this morning I decided to video tape him saying some of my favorites.

On the video he says, "ya," "thank you mom," and "elbow."

He says, "Thank you mom. Thank you dad." all day long . . . to everyone . . . for anything. He says elbow a lot too but mostly because he thinks his knees are also elbows. So every time he falls down he pats his knees and in a very sad voice says, "elbow."

You Know You've Been at the Hospital Too Much When . . .

Today Chase's preschool teacher asked if I worked at the hospital. When I told her I didn't, she said, "Oh, that's weird. When we were talking about jobs and working today, Chase told us that you're job is to help the boys at the hospital. So we figured you must work there."

Growing Up Isn't Easy

The boy had a hard day at school today. I didn't think you were supposed to have hard days at school until you are in junior high. Regardless, today was a hard day. There was, as the teacher put it, "an altercation."

There were some 3rd grade boys making fun of him and so he went and got a teacher who intervened. Are you impressed that he didn't just start a 3rd grader smack down? If you're not, you've never met my son.

When he came home he was still upset, so I asked him what they had said. He told me the following two things:

1. They were calling him Brigham Young, and he doesn't even go by Brigham he goes by MacKay or Kai, and even if he went by Brigham his name IS NOT Brigham Young. Its just Brigham. But still he likes to be called MacKay or Kai!

2. They said he was small, but he's NOT small. He just has young bones.

When talking about the first insult I asked if it would bother him if I called him Einstein. He said it would. I told him it shouldn't because calling him Einstein is like saying he's smart, and he should think of being called Brigham Young the same way. Brigham Young had a lot of good qualities, he was a hard worker and a good leader. So it shouldn't bother him, he should take it as a compliment. His response, "Einstein isn't my name and Brigham Young isn't my name either. It is not a compliment."

As for the second insult, you can tell he just got his hands x-rayed to find out why he isn't growing as fast as most kids. The doctor said there isn't a problem he just has young bones. I'll be honest, I have no idea what that means, but I assume it means he'll catch up eventually. Unfortunately, young bones or not the boy is pretty small.

At Least He Got Something From His Father

I think it is very unfair that at 20 months old Davis has decided he needs to pick out his own clothes. None of my other kids let me pick out their clothes anymore and I was hoping for at least one more year of dressing Davis. But unfortunately Davis has decided to become autonomous at an early age.

This is what he picked out this morning. Fish swim trunks a cowboy pajama shirt and . . . that's right dark blue socks. Mismatched patterns, dark socks with shorts, these are the things he inherited from his father.

Backlogged

This is what the similac box that came in the mail yesterday had written on it.  It's like they took the words right out of my mouth.  When people ask me what motherhood is like, I can't help but respond with , "Motherhood Rocks!  And so do you!"  Okay so I've never really said that, but I will from now on.

When I found out I was pregnant with Davis I went online and ordered free samples from both similac and enfamil.  Free formula people!  As you may have guessed I got my two cans of free formula from similac yesterday.  When I opened the box the first thing I saw was this.

Baby . . . toddler . . . whats the difference really?  They both whine and demand attention.  They both keep you up at night, and they both look really cute in overalls.

If you need a couple cans of formula give me a call.  I can drop them by your house sometime between now and the next two years.  

Spring Cleaning

Unfortunately it isn't spring yet, but I took some advice from my sister-in-law and decided I'd clean out my closet.  I have two kitchen garbage bags that are ready for donation.  I also have a bunch of clothes that are destine for a little nephew of mine, unless he's grown out of them already.  Jeri, what size is TJ in now?  My kids tend to be on the small side.

Anyway, I have two bags of clothes I'm getting rid of.  I've already gone through Davis' clothes and am working my way through Chases clothes.  Next I'll tackle the boy and girls clothes.  I may even try to convince my husband to fill a bag.  Then again he doesn't have as many clothes as the rest of us so I might not.  

I am also working on couple of websites right now, so pretty soon I'll have a little bit of fun money.   Maybe I'll go buy some new clothes, my closet is looking a little sparse. 

Nature vs Nurture

This is one of our most recent family pictures.  If you're interested it was taken by Rachel Meyers.  She's awesome.

Anyway, I love this picture because one, Davis still has his curls and two, I think that Michael and Chase have the same smile and that makes me laugh.  He obviously didn't inherit Michael's smile so I think it is a funny coincidence.

We went to Chase's parent teacher conference last night.  Yes, they have parent teacher conferences in preschool.  Apparently  Chase needs to work on his fine motor skills and though he doesn't enjoy coloring, he is excellent at identifying colors and shapes.  He's more of an art appreciator than an art creator.  

When we walked in the teacher looked at Michael and said, "If I ran into you at the store I'd know you were Chase's dad."  We were both a little shocked and I'm afraid that in our shock we both gave her weird looks.  She immediately felt uncomfortable and followed up with, "well you both have the same eyes."  I wonder if she really thinks that, or was just trying to justify the fact that she said Michael and Chase look a lot alike.  

People are always saying that Madison and I look alike, and I hear that Madison and Davis look alike.  Everyonce in a while (it really is quite rare) someone will point out a similarity between Kai and one of the other kids.  This was certianly the first time anyone said Chase looked like anyone else in the family.

I remember taking Chase to the doctor when Davis was a few months old.  It was on a Saturday and the appointment was in Salt Lake so the whole family went.  It was the first time we'd ever seen this doctor.  When she looked at Chase she asked how many of our kids were adopted.  I told her Chase was our only adopted child and she said, "really?  Because she (pointing at Madison) looks just like you (pointing at me) and the baby looks just like her (again referring to Madison).  So where did he (pointing at kai) come from?"  But to be fair Kai is a blond, green eyed, lefty.  He pulled every recessive gene we've got.  

Anyway, the conversation with the teacher last night got me thinking about all the ways in which Chase blends right in with the rest of us.  He's got a wicked awesome sense of humor just like me, and he's devilishly good looking, just like Michael.  Though I don't think he actually looks like Michael, they're just both very handsome.  Thinking about all this made me wish I knew more about his birth parents.  I wish I at least knew what they looked like.  It would be nice to tell him about them someday and how he is a little bit of them, a little bit of us, and a little bit of himself.

Why I Love the Mail Carrier

Today I love the mail carrier.  Why?  Because he brought me this--

and it had this inside --

That's right.  I treated myself to a new mini laptop.  It's pink.  Does that bother you?

He also brought me an envelop from our old school that had this inside--

Need to see that closer?

Yep.  Today I love that man.

Two Things That Make Me Happy

I've been yelling at my kids a lot lately.  I don't like that I yell, but I find myself doing it anyway.

I don't get much sleep because I still worry about Davis.  He's had a cold this last week and if it gets any worse he'll have to go back in for fluids and glucose.  There is also the general exhaustion from doing too many loads of dishes and having too large a pile of laundry.  Like every other mother I'm tired of everything I do being undone in a 5th the time it took me to do it.  

I'm in a funk.  So in my attempt to defunkify I am going to show you two things I saw this morning that made me happy.

It is snowing huge snowflakes right now.  I've never seen snowflakes like this before.  You could see the individual flakes fall and watch them melt.  

This hand print was left by Davis on the side window in my entryway.  It's been there a while and I don't have the heart to wash it off-- it's just too cute.

I'm feeling better already.  Perhaps I'll go work on that laundry.

There's a Monster in My Room

When Davis was first diagnosed with hypoglycemia we had to wake him up twice during the night to feed him.  This made for some pretty bad nights.  Now we give him corn starch mixed in applesauce right before bed.  This eliminates the need to wake him up and feed him, however, this hasn't eliminated all his bad nights.  A couple times a week he wakes up screaming and is generally inconsolable for about two hours until he falls asleep in our bed.  This happened last night.  He woke up around 11 screamed until 1.  

As I'm sure you know, I have three other kids and unfortunately they occasionally wake up in the middle of the night too.  This also happened last night.

Madison: "Mom.  Mom!  Did you call me?"

Me:  "No.  I was asleep!"

Madison:  "No, I mean, did you call me on the phone?"

Me:  "It's 4am!  Why would I call you on the phone?"

At this point Madison starts to sob.

Madison:  "Well someone was calling my name and saying 'hello' and I thought it was you on the phone and I couldn't find the phone and I kept hearing this voice and now I'm really scared!"

I told her she must have been dreaming.  She crawled in bed with us and just as I began to drift off to sleep there was a noise in the kitchen.

Madison: "What is that!  I think someone is playing DS in the kitchen!"

Apparently the person who had been hiding in her room trying to talk to her decided to go play DS in the kitchen instead.  Well, except that the weird noise was really Michael's cell phone.  He jumped up to answer it.  I heard him mumbling something.  There was an "ohhhhh" and a "yeah.  I'm really sorry."  

Have I mentioned before that Chase doesn't really go to sleep when everyone else does?  Sometime he just messes around in the other kids rooms and eventually passes out on the floor or someone else's bed.  Sometimes, like last night, he messes around with the phone, and then passes out on top of the phone in Madison's bed.  Sometimes, he accidentally calls people at 4am while he is sleeping on the phone.  

Fortunately the people he called happened to be really good friends of ours who, though a little freaked out when they got a very strange phone call from us at 4am, weren't terribly upset upon finding out what had happened.

I Wonder Where They Keep The Ice

I Should Have Guessed

"Hey Chase, would you rather play soccer, or baseball this summer?"

"umm . . . . hot wheels."

Huh.  For some reason I'm thinking baseball.

100 Rocks? Is That Really Necessary?

One of the boy's homework assignments was to bring 100 of the same thing for the 100th day of school.  He decided he was going to take 100 of the white rocks we have in front of our house.  I hate those rocks and would normally be happy for anyone to take any number of them at any point.  However, I was concerned that he wouldn't be able to carry 100 rocks in his backpack.  He said, "I know that!  That's why I'm going to carry them in this Bag with my Hands."  I told him to count out 100 rocks, put them in the bag, and if he could make two laps around the cul de sac carrying the bag in his hands he could take it to school tomorrow.

He's never been one to pass up a challenge.