Fort Sophie

Sophie found a new place to play.

It's like her own little fort. Bonus, the big kids can't fit so she has it all to herself.

Day of Thanks

We had a wonderful day of giving thanks, spending time with family, and eating lots of wonderful food. So much food.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am What You Wear

Sometimes I think I'm an overly strict mom. I don't let my kids jump on the furniture, I insist that they stay in their chairs during meals, I even ask them to fold their own laundry. I'm not going to be winning any "Most Fun Mom Ever" awards anytime soon. 

When I start to feel sad about this (because I, away from my mom persona, am pretty fun), all I need to do is look to Phoebe and what she's chosen to wear for the day. When she comes out of her room in such a creative outfit, I don't ask her to change. She's modest, and that's what is most important to me. See, I do support fun. And self-expression apparently.

My Barometer

It's going to snow here. I know this because my phone keeps giving me weather alerts and the local internet is buzzing over the crazy storm that's rolling in. I know for another reason though: I now have my own barometer.

My injured foot, which is mostly healed, started hurting terribly one day last week. I was shocked by the sharp pain I felt and spent the rest of the evening wearing the boot. The next day we woke up to a dusting of snow. It's happened a few times now; my foot hurts, then it rains or snows. Somehow my healing injury knows when the pressure in the air is changing.

It's going to snow. My foot told me.

Do-It-Yourself

Armed with a tripod, my fancy camera, and promises of candy, we attempted to take family pictures this weekend. The idea occurred to us on Friday night and on Saturday morning everyone got clean while I scoured all the drawers and closets looking for clothing that coordinated. Phoebe refused to wear what I picked out and changed outfits at least three times. We finally came to a compromise.

Bryan and Peter scouted around the neighborhood and found some interesting rocks for us to stand in front of. The temperature hovered around freezing, so everyone wore coats until the moment before we took pictures, then scurried back into them as quickly as possible. After staying outside as long as we could stand, we trooped back in to review the results.

All three men looked very handsome. With the timer determining when the pictures were taken and no actual photographer to hold her attention, Sophie rarely looked at the camera. Poor Phoebe was so cold and grumpy that she has a sour look in most of the shots. I was looking at a leaf above the camera and therefore have an odd, dreamy expression on my face. And being the narcissist that I am, I wanted a do-over. But alas, it was too late in the day for the light we needed.

On Sunday I let the girls wear their Christmas dresses, not because I want to skip Thanksgiving, just because we bought the clothes and I want to get as much use out of them as possible. When Bryan saw that the girls were fancy he suggested that we try again and plan to take pictures after church. I agreed and scurried about making sure the boys coordinated. And lucky us, the temperature was more than twenty degrees warmer than it had been the day before.

We got some pretty good pictures the second time, though we were fighting a mighty wind that was trying to drive us from our stone-wall perch. We discovered a trick for getting Sophie to look at the camera. She loves the song "Happy Birthday" so Bryan found a recording of someone singing "Happy birthday dear Sophie" and played it on his phone. He leaned the phone on the camera and she watched it with great curiosity. 

Both the Saturday and the Sunday session were full of "no" and "stop that" and "I said look at the camera and smile!" but I suppose that's the nature of taking your own pictures.

And now, I will share a few outtakes.

Day one:

We had to watch where we stepped because of the deer droppings. And the bear droppings. Did I mention this is a one minute walk from my house?

Phoebe looks miserable here, but look how cute Sophie is!

"What? You want us to look where?"

Day two:

Why yes, I did wear the same shirt and sweater as the day before. They were still clean. And I made us look Christmasy by adding green to Sophie's red and Phoebe's gold. But mostly, they were ironed and I knew where they were when I needed to get dressed for church on Sunday morning.

This is how Bryan does Movember. Also, wind!

Mom and Dad are camera ready. Kids? Not so much.

After grimacing and staring for most of the pictures, Phoebe remembered how to smile. Of course we had just finished taking pictures of the whole family. That's okay, it's a beautiful smile, no matter when it arrives.

Notes on Peter

Here are the highlights from Peter's Parent/Teacher conference last night:

• He is really smart
• He has no academic problems with one exception: his work is sloppy and hard to read because he rushes through it
• He rushes through it so he can read
• He reads so he can take lots of Accelerated Reader tests on the computer
• He still won't stay in his seat or on task because he always has something to tell someone, and he's sure that's more important than schoolwork
• He still talks back to his teachers, though not as much as in previous years
• His behavior is improving overall, but he still has a hard time observing boundaries, including personal space ones
• He really wants to be friends with the kids in his class, but can't seem to figure out when to be silly and funny and when to be calm and this puts some of the kids off
• His teacher is awesome

While I waited in the hall, I perused the poems the kids wrote for Veterans Day. Here is Peter's:

So far, Peter is having a much better year in third grade than he did in second grade, for which we are all thankful.

In Which I Brag About My Second Born

I met with Cooper's teacher yesterday for his first Parent/Teacher conference of the year. Cooper has been having a rough time at home, lots of naughty words and mean actions. I've been concerned about how he might be acting out at school.

Good news: he saves the poor choices for home. His teacher says that he's a normal first-grade boy. That means he's mostly good with a little bit of roughhousing thrown in for good measure. She said it was nothing she couldn't handle and certainly nothing she was concerned about.

I had also been worried that Cooper was falling between the cracks in his class. He's missed some school because of illness and when I asked him what his teacher said about his absences, he said, "Nothing." And when I asked what she thought of his missing two front teeth, he again said, "Nothing."

His teacher not only knew Cooper, but she had noticed some of his more subtle behaviors. She said she was impressed with how smart he is. I smiled when she said that, because it's true, Cooper is smart. She commented on his "magnificent" reading and comprehension skills. She told me that he is meticulous in his work, to the degree that he doesn't like to be rushed and sometimes has to go back to finish his work to get it the way he wants it. She also said he has no sense of urgency. Yep, that's also true. Well, he has one when food is involved, but not much else.

She was a little worried that he never volunteers or raises his hand to answer questions. When she calls on him he gives great answers, but he doesn't offer them of his own volition.

She told me that he thinks at a higher level than the other kids in the class and might be a little bored. She's going to recommend him for the Gifted and Talented program, which will only consist of four or five first-graders. I told her I thought that was a wonderful plan.

Being sandwiched between his extremely loud and attention grabbing siblings is sometimes a challenge for him, though I don't think he would articulate it that way. It makes my heart happy to see Cooper recognized in such a positive way, and that he has a teacher who sees his talents in spite of his quiet demeanor. That's right, at school Cooper is quiet.

Land Ho!

At our Cub Scout Pack Meeting this week the focus was on citizenship. The boys did a skit about the ingredients that go into our country (Peter got to stir everything together in a big pot), the leaders taught about George Washington, and they all (scouts and leaders) spelled out the word cooperation and told a little about what it means. The big event, though, was the boat racing. 

Since we heard about Washington, those in charge decided the kids should pretend to cross the Delaware. We live pretty close to the Delaware River, so the kids are familiar with it. The boats were wheeled platforms for storing flat tables, with all but one table removed. The oars were plungers, new from the dollar store. Siblings were invited to participate as well.

Can you tell who thought she was the captain?

New Shoes

Good news! I saw my doctor today and I'm now allowed to wear something other than sneakers on my feet. He pushed and turned and generally manipulated my foot and I passed all his tests! I even stood on the ball of my right foot while I held Sophie. I didn't go up very high, or for very long, but it was enough. I still have some discomfort, but it's the normal, healing kind. And I'm still limping, but that's getting smaller and more manageable.

It's amazing how much this one injury has impacted my life during the last two months. I've had to say no to many activities that I would have done before, and I've had to sit and rest a lot more. But you know, resting can be a good thing, even if you'd rather be up and feeling productive.

I've also had to rely on others to help me. Peter has learned how to wash and dry the laundry on his own since I've had trouble going down to the basement myself. He even stopped on the way up from the garage yesterday and emptied the dryer without being asked. I think that's the biggest silver lining of this whole adventure.

I'm so excited to wear church shoes on Sunday!

National Homemade Bread Day

The first recipe I ever posted on this blog was back in September of 2008. In the six years since I first posted it, I've tinkered with that recipe, so much so that I thought it was time to update my original instructions. Today is National Homemade Bread Day, and that seems like the perfect time to share The Bread again.

The Bread

Ingredients:

• 5 cups warm water
• 3 Tbsp instant yeast
• 2/3 cup oil (canola, olive, or coconut all work great)
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 12 cups flour (I use 4 cups wheat and 8 cups white) 

1. Get a really, really big bowl.
2. Briefly mix together water, yeast, and a spoonful of the honey. Let it stand about 15 minutes, or until the yeast has puffed-up.
3. Add the oil.
4. Add the rest of the honey. (I pour it into the same cup that I used for the oil. The honey slides right out.)
5. Add the salt. 
6. Add the flour. 
7. Stick your clean hands directly into the mixture and combine ingredients.
8. When you're done kneading, place the bowl of dough, covered with a towel, on your counter. Let it rise for at least 30 minutes.
9. After it's risen, punch it down and form it into loaves. I get 4 loaves from each batch.
10. Place dough into greased bread pans.
11. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
12. Once in the pans, let bread rise again until the top of the dough reaches the top edge of the pan.
13. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
14. Enjoy!

The City

One of the most exciting things about being in New Jersey is how close we are to New York City. Bryan and I visited Manhattan nine years ago when I was pregnant with Peter and I've longed to go back ever since. Part of that comes from how much I love the city, but a larger portion is because of who lives there. Our good friends from our first stint at BYU, Janet and Stephen, live in Manhattan with their four children. Back when we were still in Washington I emailed Janet to tell her we were moving here and we both were excited about being so close.

Back in August Janet and I met up at Ikea with eight kids between us (yes, it was rather chaotic) and, in spite of loud screaming tantrums (from the kids, of course), had a wonderful visit. We agreed that we needed to get together once a month while we're close and we set about planning these grand adventures.

Then they got sick. Then I wrecked my foot. Then we were sick. Then somebody was out of town and somebody else was working. And our adventures kept getting postponed.

We finally decreed that November 8 would be the day, NO MATTER WHAT. When everyone had strep throat last week I was afraid we would put it off again. Thankfully the antibiotics got us all feeling better pretty quickly, so we moved forward with our plan.

I will warn you in advance, we took very few pictures that day. Most of our time was spent making sure we didn't lose our children. The three that can walk had a hard time understanding why they had to stay next to us all the time and often had to hold our hands. That didn't leave much brain power for finding photo ops.

Our day began with an hour long drive to Manhattan and crossing the George Washington bridge. Who has the George Washington bridge song from Sesame Street playing in their head now?

We parked outside our friends' building and all twelve of us rode the subway. Their kids are total subway pros. Ours were freaking out with excitement. We kept having to remind them to sit down. They did pretty well. In fact, I think I was the only person that had a moving-subway-related-tumble the whole day. Don't worry, it was mild.

One important thing to note in this picture: Sophie is wearing shoes. I don't like to put shoes on my babies until they start walking. However, the high temperature for the day was supposed to be 48 degrees, so I dug those tiny little shoes out of a box to keep Sophie's feet from freezing. She thought they were fascinating.

Our first stop was the Manhattan Temple. I love that there's a temple, right there in the city. It's across the street from Lincoln Center, so we played in front of that building for a while. Then, with our fingers feeling chilly, we spent some time warming up in the church building directly above the Temple. 

Sophie spent a major chunk of the day stuck in her stroller. She was remarkably cheerful about it, though she did let us know later on that she was ready to be done. Bryan carried her after that. Phoebe was happy to rest her tired legs in the stroller whenever Sophie needed a break.

After the Temple we headed to Central Park. As we were planning the adventure, we asked the kids what they wanted to do in New York City. They all wanted to play in Central Park, so even though it was cold, they had a grand time running around with their new friends. Speaking of friends, this is the best picture we got of the group. Two children and all four adults are missing, but at least most of the kids are present and sort of visible. We stayed until I got too cold. Our kids would have been happy to stay there for the rest of the day.

Stephen and Janet also have two boys and two girls, though the order is different that ours. Phoebe tried so hard to be friends with Rose, the oldest in the group at almost ten-years-old. Rose was a good sport. Our boys became fast friends. Peter and John are only eight months apart and got along swimmingly. There's a bigger age gap between Cooper and Seth, but they still had fun hanging out together. At one point we stopped walking so the grownups could figure out where we were going next. Cooper and Seth found a place to sit down and chat. I have no idea what they were talking about, but it sure was cute.

Next we walked over to Rockefeller Center to find food. There were A LOT of people milling about. We kept together and, after lots of waiting and table-and-chair moving, found a place to sit while we enjoyed delicious pizza. It was dark when we were done, so we decided to head to our last destination of the day. We detoured to watch the skaters. It's hard to see, but in the picture below, behind Cooper and Phoebe, just outside the ice skating rink, is this year's famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, being prepped for its big lighting ceremony on December 3.

We had to visit the M&M store. And, based on the volume of people in the store, so did one-third of the population of Manhattan. No, it wasn't quite that busy, but there were so many people that I had to excuse myself to a quiet corner of the store to get my claustrophobia under control. Even extroverts need their space.

Ms. Green was posing for pictures, so Cooper and Phoebe obliged.

On the way to the subway station we walked through Times Square, though you can't really tell that in the picture. You'll just have to trust me that that's where we are here.

We ended our day with another subway ride and a quick rest at our friends' apartment before getting on the road to come back home. We were all worn out, but I'm so glad we went. I think it was a great introductory excursion for the kids. My favorite part was getting to catch up with my friends, but it was pretty awesome that we got to do that while wandering around one of my favorite cities in the world.

Daydream Believer

The boys had a day off from school a few weeks ago and Peter spent most of the day doing art projects. This was my favorite. It's supposed to be him, lying on the couch, daydreaming about being an astronaut.

Delightful

Yesterday while I was teaching preschool, Sophie hung out with one of the moms that stayed for the whole three hours rather than dropping off her child. She has a baby girl just a few weeks older than Sophie, so the babies were content to play on the floor with toys. When my teaching responsibilities were done, I went and sat by Sophie. The other mom needed to go check on her other kids and left her daughter with me.

The baby was not pleased.

As she panicked, I began to sing and do the motions to Popcorn Popping. The little girl just glared at me. But Sophie loved it. She giggled and clapped and bounced.

I tried Five Little Monkeys next, the one with the alligator. The little girl was still not impressed. But again, Sophie thought it was wonderful. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation each time the alligator (my hands stuck together like an alligator's jaw) came toward her. When the alligator would snap (I would tickle her) she would let out a loud laugh.

I don't get as much Sophie-focused time as I'd like. She is such a content and sweet baby that she's often happy to sit on my lap or play with toys on the floor while I give my attention to the other, much louder, children. But when I do have a few minutes to spend with her, oh I cherish them. I love that baby girl. She is truly a delight.

Tag Team

Last week when we all (well, all but one) had strep throat, it was my turn to teach preschool. Not wanting to expose seven other families to our awesome germs, I canceled. At the time I figured we'd just shift everything by a week, but the curriculum is setup to finish on a certain date before Christmas and my last-minute cancellation would have thrown the schedule out of whack.

So I brainstormed. I looked at my lesson. I looked at the lesson that came after mine that I wasn't supposed to teach. I came up with a solution. Why not combine two weeks into one? In order to show that it was possible I wrote up an outline for how the three hours would flow if we merged two days' worth of material into one, then I emailed it to the other mom that was responsible for the second day.

To my relief, she thought it was a good idea too. Today we put our plan into action and team taught those eight bouncy three and four year-olds. As we setup our materials, we discovered we were missing a few things, but because there were two of us, we were able to juggle and make it work. While one taught, the other would clean up from the previous activity. We would hand off to each other and get little breaks instead of being in energetic-teacher-mode for three full hours.

And now I don't have to teach again until at least the middle of January.

You know, I enjoyed the challenge of combining the curriculum and creating an engaging and functional lesson plan. Once a teacher, always a teacher?

Reverent Communication

Cooper gave a talk in Primary yesterday. He was asked to speak the week before, but that pesky strep throat thwarted those plans. The Primary secretary kindly moved his assignment a week. Cooper was not as appreciative as I was. He was nervous. Never mind that he had done a great job in the Primary program a few weeks ago in front of the whole ward, standing in front of his peers made him uneasy.

I got the topic for his talk late in the week, and then we had an adventure on Saturday (which I'll write about once I've sifted through the pictures), so talk writing was put on a back burner.

It's Cooper's practice to come into our room as soon as he wakes up in the morning. On Sunday when he came in I started asking him questions about his topic. Later, minutes before we needed to leave for church, I typed up his answers in paragraph form. The talk that he gave is part him and part me. He practiced it on the twenty minute drive to church. He has a wonderful sense for timing and delivery and did well. I couldn't see his nervousness at all.

And now, the talk:

When I pray, I communicate with Heavenly Father. To communicate is to share information. Talking with someone, writing a letter, and smiling are all ways to communicate. I talk to Heavenly Father when I pray. I tell him what I’m thankful for and I ask for things that my family needs.

When I pray I need to be reverent. That means that I speak and act with respect. I don’t jump around and yell. I speak with a calm and gentle voice. I use kind words. I am still and fold my arms and bow my head when I can. Sometimes I need to say a pray in my heart when I’m somewhere that isn't reverent, like school or the playground. I can still close my eyes and be reverent, even if those around me are not.

Sometimes it’s hard to be reverent. I like to use a loud voice and make people laugh, but I know that Heavenly Father wants me to be respectful and reverent. I love Heavenly Father, so I try to be reverent when I pray to him.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

One Game + Two Computers = Awesome Father Son Time

And no, it's not Minecraft.

Love Languages

You know the 5 Love Languages? Which love language would "Cooking Delicious Food" fall under? Because that's one way that I show love: I cook. While everyone has been sick this week I've baked homemade bread, rolls, rosemary focaccia bread, baked a pumpkin and the seeds, made a double batch of waffles to freeze, and cooked dinner each night.

I'm not sure what it is about being needed that propels me into the kitchen, but more often than not, I feel the pull of the pantry. I guess I believe in food as a source of comfort, and I always want people to feel comfortable.

Day Two

I had high hopes for going grocery shopping today. I know, we're Strep Throat City round these parts, but as of noon today the girls were no longer contagious. That meant it was totally okay to take them out in public, right?

Both girls ended up being much sicker today than they were yesterday. Around 11:30 this morning Phoebe curled up with some blankets in my big red chair and went to sleep. She spent the whole day in her pajamas and never had much energy. Sophie had regular naps, but coughed til she was red in the face several times throughout the day.

And even though I really wanted to send him to school, Cooper's cough was so intense he was afraid he would disturb the rest of his class, so he stayed home. There's no school in New Jersey tomorrow or Friday, so Cooper missed an entire week of school due to this illness.

With all the napping and coughing, and having three children at home instead of two, I decided not to drag everyone out to the store. I'm sure all the grocery store patrons are thankful, even though they don't realize it.

Cultured

Bryan had strep throat a few weeks ago. The kids and I all felt sick after that, but nobody had the typical white spots in our throats. The main symptom that some of us still have is a terrible cough.

I kept Cooper home from school yesterday and took him to the doctor. It's standard procedure here in NJ to check for strep throat when a sore throat and fever are present. Lo and behold, Cooper had strep throat. His throat was only slightly sore, so I was really surprised. We started antibiotics last night.

This morning I woke up with a thought that wouldn't leave my brain: what if the girls had strep throat too? Peter isn't sick, so I wasn't concerned about dragging him to the doctor. The girls though, have been coughing a lot. I called when the office opened and got an early appointment.

The doctor agreed to check Phoebe, but he was skeptical that Sophie had strep throat. He said that babies very rarely get it. I asked that he check anyway.

Anybody want to guess what the test said?

Both Phoebe and Sophie have strep throat.

If you need us, we'll be here, quarantined at home, administering antibiotics and wiping down all surfaces with cleaning wipes.

A Loss and A Gain

Cooper lost a tooth last week. I was hoping it was his front right tooth which had been hanging sideways for at least a month, but it wasn't. 

Then on Saturday morning Bryan and I were awakened to yells of "Cooper knocked out his teeth!" In walked Cooper, holding not one, but two front teeth. He and Peter had been playing the classic game Throw Stuffed Animals At Each Other's Heads. Cooper ducked to avoid being hit by a snuggly friend and smacked his mouth on his knee. And now he can't say the letter s.

Close to the time we moved here, Peter started complaining that he couldn't see and needed glasses. Because I am clearly an awesome mom, I kept putting off making an eye doctor appointment for him. A few weeks ago he had a school physical (because that's something that NJ schools require) and the nurse reported that Peter had 20/70 vision in one eye and 20/100 in the other. That was the push I needed. He went to the eye doctor soon after.

He is thrilled with his new glasses. I think he looks very handsome in his new accessory. Phoebe must like them too, because since she found out that Peter would be getting glasses, she's been telling me that she needs them too. When asked if she had trouble seeing, she said yes, that she couldn't see anything at all. Since she doesn't walk into walls, I think she may be exaggerating a bit...

One final note about his glasses: they're magic. He wore them on Sunday and he was unusually well behaved. I mean, he was sweet and helpful and cheerful. He folded all his laundry and then he folded Sophie's too. I pointed out the power that his glasses held. Right before bed he told me that he tested the theory. "I took my glasses off and then there was chaos!"