Go Cougars

Peter sent me a first day of school picture! Was it actually taken on the first day of school? No. But it was taken at the end of the first week of school, and I'm just happy to get a picture.

Begin Again

We took our first day of school pictures at 11:30 instead of 7:30. Otherwise, it's going well.

Ownership

We just finished one of my favorite weekends of the year. I'm waiting for some of the talks to be uploaded before I properly talk about General Conference. But I will share one of the only pictures I took over the past two days. For the first time, Topher had his own Conference Notebook. He was delighted. He understood that he had his own book just like the big kids. His book contained about five coloring pages I printed out of the Friend magazine. He alternated between coloring the pages, coloring the book itself, dumping out all the crayons, then ripping the pages out. Conference Notebooks have a learning curve when you're not quite two.

A Place of Love and Beauty

On Saturday morning Cooper went to the Temple and performed baptisms for the dead for the first time. He, along with Peter and Bryan joined the Youth from our ward at the Philadelphia Temple for the service opportunity.

Our entire family got up at 5AM and drove down to arrive (close to) on-time for the scheduled visit. While the big boys served in the Temple, the rest of us hung out in the van (in what the kids dubbed as the cleanest parking garage they'd ever seen), walked through the visitor's center, and took a very quick and very cold walk around the Temple.

I asked Cooper if the Temple was everything he thought it would be. "Nope," he said, "it was more."

The Gift of Sight

Sophie is going to have an exciting summer. Today she joined the glasses club, and in the next month she'll get to wear a patch for a while before Kindergarten begins. For now, she's going to get used to her new spectacles.

Sophie was excited to show the other kids her glasses. They all responded positively. Phoebe whisked Sophie upstairs for costume and hair. She dressed Sophie as a teacher to go along with the glasses, messy bun and all. When I asked Phoebe what she was doing she said, "I've been waiting for this my whole life... dressing up my little sister!"

The Young Baker

We had our seventh snow day of the school year yesterday. Phoebe celebrated by baking her first solo batches of brownies and pumpkin cookies. Her efforts were enjoyed by all.

The Pox

On Friday I noticed a funny red spot on Topher's chest. It looked a little like the tumor Sophie had surgically removed from her face a few years ago. I didn't think much of it beyond that.

On Saturday after his bath, the spot looked like it had been scrubbed off a bit, so not a tumor.

On Sunday evening, after we had all attended our church meetings, I noticed there were a handful of spots. Huh. Was it an allergic reaction?

On Monday morning this is what his stomach looked like. There were spots on his back and scalp as well. I got him in to see our doctor that afternoon. He confirmed what I had suspected: chicken pox. 

This is a first for our family. The other kids were immunized against chicken pox, so it wasn't an issue. Topher, however, is four months too young to receive the vaccine.

I spent Monday evening texting apologies to all the people at church that came in contact with him, explaining our shock and saying we had no idea where he got it. One of them called me back and said her infant, one of only three in the ward, had five odd blisters about two weeks ago. Then she apologized to me about unknowingly giving Topher chicken pox. I told her I was relieved to have a source and to know that we hadn't gotten her baby sick.

This is how much it had spread by Tuesday night.

He's still played and laughed, but he's also spent a lot of this week feeling miserable and itchy. He's quarantined at home until new blisters stop appearing and those he has crust over. It should take about a week.

First Food

After yesterday's post Bryan reminded me that he recorded a movie of Topher eating rice cereal for the first time, so now you can see his full reaction. Bonus, you get to hear Peter's low voice. He's sailed past the voice change landmark of sounding like his mom, onto sounding more like his dad.



I'm thankful for technology that makes it possible to share this moment and to watch it again and again.

Sophie's Real First Day

We had our first two days of our co-op preschool at our house. It went well. I took a picture of each of the four kids on their first day. We talked about our favorite things, we measured how tall they all are, we played, we snacked, we did yoga, we went on a treasure hunt for the letter m, and read books and sang songs.

The next day we talked about what we want to be when we grow up. Sophie still wants to be a doctor and a "haircutter" and a mom. We read and sang and played and snacked again. The kids that grew tired early the day before made it all the way till the end.

It was a good week.

Trade Offs

Peter, Cooper, and Phoebe all had a wonderful first day of school. Pictures of this important day exist, just not on any of my devices, and the owner of the other device has already gone to sleep for the night.

Sophie and I had a delightfully peaceful day at home and the store. I had a memory float through my brain today of what life was like when I only had one child. I was a much calmer human being.

That's okay, I'd rather be a little crazy than not have all four of my little (and not-so-little) people.

Not Ballet...Or Karate

Phoebe swapped her usual ballet (because her mom signed up for classes too late) for gymnastics. She's enjoying it immensely and has been a quick study during her two sessions. She does struggle with waiting her turn on the apparatus, but I don't mind giving her the chance to practice that skill while under someone else's care.

Also, she can't remember what the activity is called. She usually refers to it as karate, as in, "I'm so excited for karate!"

Handstanding:

Ringing:

Low balance beaming:

High balance beaming:

Back to the Grind

Today was the beginning of the new school year. For those of you keeping track, we had nine weeks of summer vacation rather than the twelve weeks we would have had if we'd stayed in New Jersey. The boys were ready to start the new year so they could make friends, but I'm still not ready to go back to the school routine.

But I'm not the one going to school, so I guess I can deal.

We walked to school with our neighbor. She was outside and ready to go at the appointed time as I came flying out of the house, handing signs to boys, telling them to stand still and smile, apologizing for delaying the journey. She was patient, but I called it after only a few pictures and hoped for the best.

Well, here's what I got.

Pictures aside, the boys both had a great first day.

And while they were off organizing school supplies and learning a new schedule, the girls and I were getting to know some of the neighborhood moms. As I dropped Peter's Epi-Pen off at the nurse's office I struck up a conversation with another mom. It turns out that she has a daughter, also with a peanut allergy, in Peter's class. She invited us to a get-together for several moms she was hosting so we spent a few hours meeting people.

Overall, it was a full first day for everyone.

Wheels

A certain nine-year-old finally let go of his fear of falling last week and figured out how to ride his bike. He's spent lots of time outside, riding on two wheels, ever since.

Little Girl Rite of Passage

Look what Phoebe discovered.

I've found her putting on my makeup three times this week. Each time I reminded her that she's beautiful without makeup and to please stay out of my stuff. She was terribly disappointed until I mentioned play makeup. I told her that real makeup isn't available until she's a teenager, but I'd be willing to talk about play makeup earlier, like when she's five or six.

She hasn't put on my makeup since.

Stand and Deliver

Bryan and Sophie sat all by themselves during church on Sunday. Peter, Cooper, Phoebe and I were on the stand, participating in the Primary Program. I'm a newly called Primary teacher, so my role was crowd control. I had a group of older kids, except for a sweet six-year-old girl that liked leaning over and commenting to me about the program and a four-year-old boy who preferred to drum on the bench in front of us rather than sit. It was a pretty easy gig.

Phoebe was pleased to deliver the first line of the whole program. She had her part memorized and the teacher in charge of her group didn't even try to lean over and feed her the line. That was refreshing. I remember being so nervous for Peter's first Primary Program. His stage fright was a big deal then. I had no such qualms about Phoebe. She delivered her text in a loud, clear voice into the microphone and had a grand time.

Peter came next. Due to illness (his) and injury (mine), he missed both rehearsals. His part was a lengthy six sentences long so he didn't memorize it. We had practiced sounding natural while reading aloud and I think he did a lovely job.

Cooper's part was about halfway through the program, which was appropriate since he was half memorized, but he read a scripture, so he could kind of get away with that. Cooper is such a wonderful reader. I especially love to hear him read. He uses inflection and vocal variation in a way that is interesting and engaging. We listened to him practice his part and gave suggestions (as we had done with the other two), and he did a great job.

I'm not sure if it's because I was on the stand and couldn't see if the kids were misbehaving or if it's because the kids all did so well, but I think this was the best program yet. We were even early to church!

Dressed In White

Yesterday was a very important day for our family. I don't have access to many pictures yet, but I will share two that should give a good idea of what happened.

Event one:

Event two:

Do Your Best

Tonight was the beginning of merit badges, pine wood derbies, and blue and gold dinners for our family. Peter and Cooper both have their sights set on being Eagle Scouts, not because they know what it means, but because eagles are cool.

Peter is a little disappointed that he doesn't get to sell cookies.

The Force

Cooper was very patient about getting his visit from the Tooth Fairy. By the time said fairy came, two boys needed visits.

We didn't realize that Peter even had a loose tooth, and come to think of it, he might not have. See, on the night of his birthday (which I'll write about tomorrow) he was full of energy and bouncing around instead of getting ready for bed. He was bouncing so much that he bounced his knee up to meet his face. The result was a yell of pain. I came to investigate and found one of Peter's teeth just barely hanging on. A moment later, it was out in his palm. That's right, he knocked his own tooth out. Not exactly a happy birthday moment.

The first question was if it was a baby tooth or not. You'd think we would have known from looking at it, but we didn't. I thought it probably was since there was no root, but I wasn't sure. Thankfully our home teacher is a pediatric dentist and lives a few minutes away from us. We called to get his expert opinion and he came right over. It was indeed a baby tooth.

That night Peter wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy and asked for a new toothbrush. He's never been one to want money. We told him the Tooth Fairy had Christmas break off. Well, he (because the boys are in agreement that their Tooth Fairy is a boy) finally delivered.

On Sunday morning the boys woke up to these notes under their pillows.

They also found the red and green toothbrushes pictured below.

Their Tooth Fairy has skills. And when they asked if I had made the notes, I could honestly answer no.

Ready to Run

About three weeks ago Peter handed me a small slip of paper he'd gotten from school. It was a notice for a race that the BYU track team was hosting for elementary school aged kids in the area. He told me he wanted to do the race and asked if I would please sign him up.

Peter's running has been well documented on this blog, but he'd never run in a race before. His running was always more of the escape variety. I took the paper and said I would look into it.

Then I lost the paper.

The night before the race I remembered that I said I would check it out. And within a minute of looking I found the paper. Now, I'm kind of flaky, so the fact that I remembered AND found the paper was quite remarkable. I took it as a sign and added his name to the nearly sixty first grade boys that were already signed up.

The next day after Cooper finished soccer (we're sounding downright sporty) we drove to BYU. Peter started saying he didn't want to run, but his stage-fright likes to pop up sometimes, so I reassured him that it would be fun and we continued heading to the field.

This was my first race too, so I wasn't sure where to go or what to do. Thankfully we ran into a friend who had grown-up running track and she guided us. Peter got to wear an official race number on his shirt, which added to both the awesomeness and the scariness of the event for him.

The course was a mile long, cross country style. The starting line was way over on one side of the field and the finishing line was on the track. Peter warmed-up with my friend's son and was given a few words of coaching in the process. Here he is, lined up with his peers, ready to run.

As soon as the race started Cooper and Phoebe (both strapped into the double stroller) and I ran our own little race over to the finish line. We paused partway to film Peter as the course came near the spectators, but for some reason I'm having trouble loading that. So you'll just have to trust that he ran and we watched. Also, a bee tried to sting me during one movie, so maybe it's better that I can't put that on the blog since I'm sure my camera-flailing would make some people motion sick.

Bryan and I were both a touch afraid that Peter would run out of steam and not finish the race. So as we were heading over before the race began, I told Peter that the important part wasn't winning, it was finishing. And he did. We cheered as he crossed the finish line.

Here are his results. I've removed our last name (since I don't do last names on the blog) and the name of his school (cause that's a little too much personal information for the internet). Like I said, there were at least sixty boys in his race, and probably more since the registration was open for several more hours after I signed Peter up.

Considering the only training he'd done was running away from me, I think he did a great job on his first race. He was so proud of himself when he finished. I foresee more track time in our future.