Special Delivery

During lunch the boys and I were looking at what we call "fun stuff." I subscribe to a few kid craft-blogs (go ahead, mock all you want). The boys like looking at the different pictures of things they might make.

Before turning off the computer, I decided to jump over and check the headlines of the local news website. I saw this story:

Provo police officer delivers baby

January 14th, 2010 @ 9:30am

PROVO -- A Provo police officer delivered a baby boy Wednesday night.

Police say Officer Devon L. Jensen was flagged over by two women in a car near 1860 S. University Ave. The women were attempting to get to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.
When he spoke to the occupants, he found a woman was starting to have her baby.
He immediately requested paramedics to respond; but before they could arrive, the baby decided it was time.
With the help of Officer Jensen, the baby boy was born.
Paramedics arrived a short time later and transported the mother and baby to the hospital. Both are said to be doing well.

I read it out-loud to the boys, mostly because Cooper came very close to being born in a car, and I'm always thankful when I read stories like this that he wasn't.

After I read the article. Peter asked the following:

Peter: Was I born in a car?

Me: No, but Cooper almost was.

Peter: Why did they send the baby in the mail?

Me: What?

Peter: Why did they put the baby in the mail?

Me: Who put a baby in the mail?

Peter: The police officer.

Me: Nobody mailed a baby. Wait, do you mean because the story said the officer delivered the baby?

Peter: Yeah. Is that how you got Cooper?

Me: No, that's not how we got Cooper.

I was nervous that he might really want to know how we got Cooper, but, thankfully, the questions stopped there. For now.

Four!

I have a four-year-old at my house. Peter hit that milestone at the end of December. His big day was a non-stop party.

The festivities actually began the night before when Bryan and three of his siblings decorated our living and dining rooms with streamers and balloons.



Then he had his fabulous birthday breakfast, which included a slightly off-key (by me) rendition of Happy Birthday. Cooper's been walking around singing it ever since.



He opened all of his presents right after breakfast. He was quite happy with his cars, books, puzzle, and his first box of real Legos. We have Duplos, but he knew that Legos were smaller and for older boys. Thanks to Nana Shari & Papa Ron, Nana Cris & Grandpa Marc, Uncle Jeff, and Uncle Ian & Aunt Amanda for remembering Peter's birthday.

We had a special birthday lunch with my Grandma Miriam. Then Peter got to come home and play with his new treasures all afternoon.

You'd think that would be enough birthday for any boy, but no. He had his favorite dinner of spaghetti and then he got a cake. Yup, in addition to the chocolate-y pancakes from breakfast, he got a "Thomas" cake. This is what he had requested. Since he was getting a Thomas birthday train, we thought we would try to use it on the cake. My grand vision was to make the cake resemble the Island of Sodor, Thomas' abode. I even put it on a blue plate so the island would be surrounded by water. It didn't work out so well.


Peter didn't seem to mind his lumpy, falling-apart cake, and he got to have the birthday song sung to him again.



Peter has been reveling in the perks of being four. He can now eat hot dogs and grapes whole, and has been enjoying popcorn. Many of his peers have been partaking of these things for ages, but I'm a stickler for those American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations.

Overall, I'd say it was a highly successful birthday. The best part was Peter's awe over being four. He kept saying, "I'm really four, am I?" and "Hey guys, I'm four."

No Cussing Club

Has anyone seen the new website for the youth of the church? I like it. I'm still exploring it, but I've already found some of things I needed for my calling with the Young Women. The boys and I watched some of the videos available on the website. I was especially impressed with this young man.

Profanity has always bothered me. I remember when I made the switch from home school to public school (with a semester of private school in between), I felt like my ears were being constantly assaulted from the barrage of foul language. When I asked my friends not to curse around me, most of them were respectful. A few, more acquaintances than friends, took it upon themselves to get me to join their foul-mouthed ranks. No dice.

I want my boys to have the same conviction of character as the young man in the video. I want to teach them to stand up for what they know is right, no matter what.

Exhaustion and Random Thoughts: The Best of Friends

I've been working on stuff for my calling for almost four hours tonight. That's in addition to the two and a half hours I worked on it last night. I can't decide if my brain is full, or really really empty. No, there are definitely thoughts in there, they're just zinging around, bouncing off of one another. Because I can't hold onto one thought for more than a minute, I'm going to favor you all with a brain dump. Ready?!?

• I loved the comments from yesterday's post. You all certainly know your Dr. Seuss. Here are my individual replys:
• Well done Mom for the lightening fast response time.
  
• Ian, I especially loved your verse. And, dude, on the mainland you wear long pants in the Winter. Try it. You'll thank me.
  
• Beth, if we were in the same state, I think it would be awesome to get together. I think our boys would have fun playing. Pesky hundreds of miles separating us...
  
• Elisa, I'll be emailing you soon, probably when coherent thought returns.
  
• Amanda, you're right, we'd rather go there, but I think you'd rather come here.
  
• Jolene, I look forward to seeing you at book club. Hopefully I'll have finished the book by Thursday. And slept more. And showered.
  
• Hi Shannon! I didn't even know you read my blog. That was a lovely surprise.
• Cristin, that whole taking the kids in and out of the car thing has actually kept me from going places. If I'm really tired, the thought of all those buckles just wears me out more. And I never take them anywhere unless the aforementioned buckles are secure.
• That is all for the comments.
  
• Tonight I thought about eating ice cream. And then I remembered that we had Special K Red Berry in the Pantry. I went for the cereal and am pleased with my choice.
• Because of Peter's eczema, we only bathe the boys twice a week. We have no idea if Cooper has eczema because he's never had a chance to have his skin dried out by nightly baths.
• By the morning of bath day (the baths happen after dinner) Cooper has started to smell. Like fish. He doesn't eat a lot of fish, nor do we ply him with fish oil, so I'm not sure why he smells like that. I sure hope the girl he marries likes fish...
• Bryan came home from work today and announced that he had bought me a pressure-cooker. I guess it's an early Valentine's Day present, which is great, because I love practical kitchen gadgets. Seriously. I think he's excited about the prospect of Brazilian-style beans and rice, which, according to him, requires a pressure-cooker.
  
• I still haven't bought a 2010 calendar for my kitchen. The boys have one in their room, but I'm still spending part of every day staring at December 2009. Do I have a problem letting go of the past? Or am I just too afraid of the cold to go buy myself a calendar?
• Did anyone notice yesterday's awesome date? 01-11-10, a palindrome! I really love palindromes. And cool number patterns in general. When I looked at the date yesterday I thought, "Wow, this would be a really cool day to get married. Or be born."

Well, my cereal's done, and so am I. I realize you'll all read this throughout the day, but, good night everybody!

Too Wet to Go Out, Too Cold to Play Ball*

I've been pondering on the habits of bears recently. They're onto something with this whole hibernation business. Think about it, they go to sleep when the weather is starting to get chilly, and they wake up to blossoms and sunshine. I could go for that. I could miss the cold and the snow, and think of how well-rested I would be when I woke up.

In a way, I have been hibernating. I leave the house as little as possible. It's simply too cold to go out. Actually, once I psych myself up enough and get outside, it's not terrible; it's more the anticipation of the cold that keeps me indoors.

I'm not a complete hermit. I do go to church every Sunday and the boys and I went to the library last week. On Saturday Bryan and I took the boys out to return a bunch of excess wedding stuff and ill-chosen Christmas presents. Because we had two adults, most of our time was spent in the car while one parent stayed with the boys and the other parent ran into the store. That way we didn't have to spend time standing in the frigid air pulling the boys in and out of the car, but we were both there to return our individual items. I'm impressed that we were out in the cold for as long as we were.

I've decided I'm a homebody, at least during the Winter. I am perfectly content to stay at home, let the boys play, read to them, clean my house, and not go out into the cold. The boys seem perfectly fine with it too. Most of the time. There have been a few times that I've had the thought, "Wow, I'm not doing very much to have friends, for me or the boys. Maybe we should invite someone over to play." Yeah, we probably should. Maybe that will be my goal for January: invite someone over.

Anybody want to come play at our house?

*Can anybody name the children's book this title comes from?

When In Rome

My friend Camille had this on her blog. It combines two of favorite things: show choir and modern dance. Seriously, I love them both. And yes, I realize that this is a commercial, but I just don't care.



Hmm... that makes me want to go listen to one of my new Christmas presents.

Nothing Like a Good Book

After pulling into a parking place at the library:

Peter: I LOVE THE LIBRARY!

Me: Me too!

Peter: When I was with Heavenly Father (meaning before he was born) I tried to jump out of heaven so I could go to the library.

Dear Peter,

I sure hope they have libraries in heaven.

Love,

Your Bibliophile Mom

White Wedding

We're a week out from the wedding, and I think most of us have recovered. It was wonderful to be in the sealing room when Melinda (Bryan's sister, for those of you that are wondering) and Jake were married. However, our attempts at taking pictures that day were marred by two things:

1. The bride had her eyes closed a shocking amount of the time, thus most of our pictures are of a smiling, un-seeing Melinda.
2. We totally forgot our camera when it came time to go to the reception.

What the second one means is that I have no pictures of the boys in their awesome matching ties that Bryan's mom made (which also matched the ties that Bryan and his brothers wore) or me in my cute bridesmaid's dress. I'm rather sad about this. I hope that we'll have access to some of the professional wedding pictures that were taken, because otherwise our fancy photogenic mugs won't make it on here.

I do have a few pictures though.

Behold, one of the only pictures of Melinda with her eyes open. Would you believe the Temple just had that cloak available in case a bride needed it? I was impressed by that. And I'm sure Melinda appreciated not freezing to death on her wedding day.


I am now going to treat you to one of the freakiest pictures of me I've ever seen. Are you ready?


Go ahead and zoom in on that bad boy. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to crinkle up my nose and forehead like that. The only reason I was even in picture range was that I had been sent to fix Melinda's falling veil. The result?


I got it to stick, and I didn't think I had drawn blood, but this picture leads me to believe otherwise. Oops. On the bright side, this picture shows that I successfully curled my hair. Thanks to my days in show choir, I know how to make sponge curlers work for me.

See down in the bottom right-hand corner of this picture (can you see through all the snow)? That is the best picture we got of Peter all day. I know the photographers got lots of pictures of both the boys, but alas, we weren't so lucky.


Well, that's not entirely true. We (and by we, I mean Bryan) got a few slightly blurry pictures of Cooper in his leprechaun vest, wrapped up in my coat, trying to stay warm.

We finally thawed out, but we've informed Bryan's youngest sister that a December wedding is not an option. She's twelve, so we've got a while to drive that message home.

My Favorite Minute and a Half From Christmas Morning

Something Old, Something New

Here's something totally wacky: I can't think of any New Year's Resolutions. I want to continue the things I decided to do last year, but I can't for the life of me come up with anything new. Have I reached a mortally attainable plane of perfection?

Nope.

I think it's just laziness. I like last year's resolutions, so I'm happy to keep on keepin' on.

Although I don't have any for myself, I do have a resolution for each of the boys. Peter expressed a desire yesterday to learn to tie his shoes. Well, I thought, that sounds like a good thing to work on this year. (Peter's resolutions for last year were to learn to read and to potty-train: check and semi-check.)

Cooper's is a little bit crazier: I'd really like to potty-train Cooper this year. I know, he'll turn two in March and that's awfully young for a boy, but I keep getting these vibes that he'll be ready soon. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But we're going to try it anyway. Not now, but sometime before 2011.