Metamorphosis

Remember when I mentioned Aubree's pet, Boo-Boo the caterpillar? Well, a lot has changed in the last week. For starters, Boo-Boo was re-named "Zoomee" the day after we found him. And the day after that, Zoomee's brother (dubbed "Russia") came to live with us too. See, that's the problem with pets. Things never stay simple. Once we had two caterpillars, we needed a bigger "cage." Two caterpillars eat a LOT and they poop even more. Aubree's interest waxed and waned, but I spent untold hours staring at these silly yet fascinating little creatures.

When I found Russia, he was HUGE. It didn't take long before he "pooped his last poop," found a special spot under a twig, and turned into this:
See the thin, white, silky string holding the caterpillar to the twig? Pretty cool, eh? A couple days later, Zoomee followed the same pattern. Here's a picture of him before turning into his chrysalis:
Now, both caterpillars (ideal pets at this point) are turning into Black Swallowtail butterflies. I read somewhere that while inside the chrysalis, their bodies turn to liquid and reform. In another week or so, hopefully Russia will break free, hang upside down for a few hours, then be ready to be released into the backyard - just as Aubree prayed. I'll make sure to take pictures.

Daddy Saves the Day

After we got home from church this afternoon, Aubree and Bryce ran to play while I started to get lunch ready. Soon I could hear muffled voices and thought something wasn't quite right. I called out and Aubree answered, "We're in Bryce's room. We don't want you to come in. We locked the door! *laugh, laugh*" Annoyed, I reminded Aubree she's not allowed to lock doors and asked her to unlock it. "Okay," she responded. Then, "I caaaaaaannnnnn't, it won't unlock." I took a deep breath. "Sure," I thought to myself, "my two kids are locked in the bedroom, but no big deal. Aubree is 3 1/2 and very capable, unlocking a door is not a difficult task. This will just me a minor inconvenience."

Fifteen minutes later the door still looked like this:
By this time, both Aubree and Bryce are hysterical. Aubree's given up trying to unlock the door and from peeking under the door, I can see her sitting in a chair at the far end of the room sobbing. Bryce is still banging on the door, getting more upset by the minute. I've done all I can think of (short of kicking in the door) to try to open the door, but it's a very stupid door handle with no screws or obvious way to pick the lock.
Then, our hero arrived home after finishing post-church Bishopric meetings and duties. After a few minutes of this:
We finally had this:
Bryce took a few minutes to calm down, but Aubree recovered quickly. Once determining she wasn't too upset, I took her back in the room and re-locked the door. "Get over here and unlock this door," I demanded. She skipped over, twisted the lock and popped the door open. Aaaauuuggghhhhhh!

PS Happy Father's Day!

Get it?

As of yesterday, Aubree has her first "pet." And it's just our kind of pet - a caterpillar. I found Mr. Caterpillar (according to Aubree, his real name is "Boo-Boo") in my garden (boo for "Boo-Boo"). Since we just finished up a unit on Bugs, the timing seemed great. Aubree thinks her pet is the best thing ever. She sings to Boo-Boo, talks to him, tries to cover his "cage" with blankets so he can go to sleep, carries him around the house, and spends significant stretches of time just watching him walk around. This afternoon we discovered that he had molted. It's surprising how much bigger he got. Very neat! During her bedtime prayers tonight, Aubree prayed, "please bless my caterpillar that he will grow and we can let him go in our backyard when he becomes a butterfly." Thanks to Google, I've discovered that Boo-Boo will hopefully grow up to be a Black Swallowtail. And I just discovered we've been trying to feed him the wrong food. Oops. Tomorrow we'll make sure to get him some carrot leaves...

The other day we pulled out the dry-erase markers again. This time, however, Aubree was more interested in writing than in drawing. Here's a picture of what she wrote:
I wrote the sentence in blue ("A cat can see me"). Since it's hard to see in the picture, the first sentence Aubree wrote (all by herself) goes like this: "Aubree a cat bepus a majic mome has a wod." By way of interpretation, she wrote, "Aubree is a cat because a magic mommy has a wand." The second sentence she also wrote by herself (although she did ask me how to spell "fairy"), but I'm not sure what the interpretation is because by that time Bryce had woken up from his nap and she wasn't telling me what she was writing as she wrote. She just tried to sound out the words she was thinking of. I *think* she wrote something along the lines of "the mom has a wand because..." I don't remember!
Bryce is also learning lots of new things. Some things are fun. For example, he's really starting to get good at sign language. He picks up new signs surprisingly quickly - I just need to be more consistent with teaching and using them! Today he learned "Sleep." His favorite sign is still "cookie." In fact, how well he learned and used the "cookie" sign is what made me realize I really should be signing more. As soon as we get to Publix he starts signing, "cookie, cookie, COOKIE!"
He also learned to participate in a funny saying with us. We often quote a line from the old movie, "The Court Jester." -
"Get it?"
"Got it."
"Good."
Now, whenever he hears, "get it," Bryce immediately pipes up, "Go-it" (rhymes with "saw-it") He thinks it's so funny.
Other things he's learning I don't appreciate quite as much. For example, he's figured out how to open doors. Now, nothing's safe! Bathrooms, the laundry room/pantry, bedrooms - all fair game. My life just got harder.

Lopped Locks & Barfing Babies

Sunday evening I was talking with my mom on the phone and getting dinner ready. Aubree was cutting papers into tiny confetti. The next thing I knew, she was guiltily looking up at me with her hand full of hair. Aauugghhh. I'm sure this is a normal childhood occurrence but I was really hoping to avoid it. Not too long ago Aubree's good friend cut a chunk out of her hair and I took the opportunity to have a number of discussions with Aubree about how bad it looked and how she should never do that to her hair. She seemed appropriately appalled at what her friend had done and I imagined we had dodged a bullet. Apparently not.

Don't worry, I think I handled the situation quite well. After hanging up with my mom (who later informed me she and my dad "laughed and laughed") I think I said something along the lines of, "you lose your scissors FOREVER." I almost got out the hair-cutting scissors and chopped all of her hair to shoulder length (the piece she cut goes about to her chin). At first she (way too happily in my opinion) agreed, "yeah! I want my hair cut like yours!" But soon she cried, "Noooo, I want loooooonnnnnnggggg hair." "Good," I grumbled to myself, "you should be upset." See, handled it like a pro. I even sent her to bed early.
I took the picture on the right the day after the "incident." If Aubree looks a bit pallid it's not the camera's fault. That morning she woke up around 7:30 and called out, "Mom! My tummy hurts...let's have breakfast." She'd gone to bed early and hadn't eaten much dinner, so I figured she was super hungry. I told her to get up and we'd have breakfast. She repeated her statement a few more times, but didn't get out of bed and then fell back asleep till 8. When I went in to get her at 8 her face was ghostly pale. Even her lips were chalk white. "Uh oh," I thought, "she really is sick!" Though she wanted breakfast she didn't eat anything. At one point she pushed her pancakes away and said, "I need something easier to eat, maybe something with a spoon." No luck with cereal either. She fell asleep twice during breakfast. That freaked me out a little because it is soooooo not like her.
She went back to sleep on the couch and woke up a short while later because she needed to use the restroom. While sitting on the toilet, she started vomiting. I caught most of it in my hands (oh, the joys of motherhood). The next couple hours she alternated sleeping and throwing up. She was remarkably calm during the whole ordeal. I know after I throw up I always feel shaky and sometimes just want to cry. Even when sitting in a pool of puke or dry-heaving, she seemed totally unfazed. Although dealing with throw-up is no fun and I felt bad that Aubree was hurting, it ended up being a very pleasant day. She's strangely better behaved when she's sick - no whining, no fighting, super polite and grateful. By afternoon she was feeling much better and is fine today.
I think Aubree got what Bryce had a week ago. He cried out in the middle of the night and when I went to check on him I discovered he'd thrown up in his crib. He spent the rest of the night waking up every 45 minutes to vomit. Poor, poor kid. I knew he was really sick when he actually went to sleep next to me in my bed (easier to manage the puke episodes that way). Normally there is zero chance he'll stay still long enough to sleep in my bed. Again, though I was sad he was hurting and hated having to be up all night, I enjoyed getting a chance to cuddle with him. Thankfully, he was better by the morning. I guess if they have to get sick one that only lasts 8 hours is the kind to get!
PS No, Bryce wasn't still sick in the picture on the left, it's from our most recent excursion to the zoo.

Forced Family Fun RUN

Shortly after last Christmas I presented a challenge to my extended family; I asked them to train for and complete a 5K when we all got together for my brother, Sean's, wedding in May 2009. To some this may not seem like a big deal, but "Graff's don't run." That's a well established and accepted truth; in fact, I'm pretty sure it's written somewhere in our family creed. I knew it was an extreme request and I was quite unsure what the reaction would be. To my great surprise and relief, most family members seemed supportive and were willing to commit. I was thrilled when grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends also expressed enthusiasm and pledged to participate. My brother-in-law, Stew, even offered to sponsor the race!

Over the course of the following five months, as we all prepared it was so much fun to follow-up with everyone's progress. I know it definitely helped keep me motivated and excited about jogging and staying in shape. It turns out that at least one member of my family, my sister Katie, has an inner-runner she never realized. Once she started training, she was quickly running 4, 5, and even 9+ miles at a time!
Time sped by and soon the time for Sean and Paula's wedding (and the 5K) arrived. Although excited about the race, I couldn't help but feel nervous as the day we'd all planned for and anticipated approached. What if it ended up as a total flop? What if someone got hurt? What if people had bad attitudes or flaked out? What if everyone hated it?
Again, I was amazed at the response. Everyone arrived bright and early Memorial Day morning with cheerful attitudes and a friendly, but slightly competitive spirit.

Getting ready for the race

The racers picked up their t-shirts and with a simple, "Go!" took off.

My brother-in-law, Andrew, modeling our t-shirts (the devil is freezing and asking "what's going on up there?")

At the starting point

The "Boys" (Ian, Rob, Mark, Seth, Brian, and Andrew) set off at a brisk pace.

This is about 1/2 way through the race (Ian in the lead)

The rest of us followed suite, with some jogging, some walking, and others doing a combination of the two.
With just .3 miles remaining in the race, Ian was still in the lead. Rob took the opportunity and sprinted to the finish, completing the race 15 seconds before Ian (since everyone was either participating in the race or babysitting, there was no one at the finish line to take pictures of the first racers). Congratulations to Rob! Katie took top prize for the female racers. The winners received a gift package and a $50 gift card to Sports Authority.

Katie crossing the finish line (that's me not too far behind her)

Ultimately, the race was a smashing success. My dad even walked a MILE!
Those who finished first either went back on the course to support those still plugging along or stayed at the finish line to cheer for the others as they crossed. It was such a fun family activity.

Kira ran the whole course & finished 3rd for the girls!

Paula, Tina, & Becky finishing strong

Baby Grace Carter - youngest (unofficial) race participant

Grandpa Bunker - oldest race participant

Everyone seemed to have a fun time and (shock of all shocks!) there is serious talk of making this a regular event!!! Hades really did freeze over!
After the race we went back up to my parent's house and had a drawing for more prizes and a fantastic BBQ lunch. Everyone who participated in the race got a fun prize (Thanks Stew & Universal Aero Support!).

I can't begin to thank everyone enough for their willingness to participate. You're AWESOME!

Gimmesomeofthat

In less than two days we're leaving for California to attend my brother's wedding. There are 5,003 things on my "to-do" list before our departure. Item #115: "Blog."

* We have good news and news. The good news is that Mark will never be Elder's Quorum President again! The news is that yesterday he was called to be 2nd counselor in our ward's Bishopric.
* A few weeks ago, Mark's brother Eric made a last-minute and way-too-short visit out to see us. He was only able to stay one day, but got to go to the beach and see the shuttles on the pads and do the regular touristy-stuff. We realized it have been almost 3 1/2 years since we've seen Eric and his family. That's especially not good because, since they have four kids, they constitute half of all of Aubree and Bryce's cousins. Aubree loved having Eric around and for a week after he left, all her pretend adventures took place in "Arizona."

Eric & Mark @ Playalinda beach

* Bryce loves to talk. Granted, most of what he says is pure gibberish to me, but it sure sounds like he's trying to carry on a long and detailed conversation. He does have a few words/phrases that we can understand. For example, his favorite thing to say is still "Tank-oo" (thank you). He also says, "Uh oh," "daw" (dog), "da doe!" (let's Go!", "Dad," "Up," and finally (finally!) has started to say "Mama" again. The other night at dinner Bryce really, really wanted juice. He kept pointing at the glass and repeating the same phrase which sounded suspicially like, "Gimme-some-of-that!"

*Speaking of pointing, Bryce has discovered great power in his index finger. Imagine, by pointing said finger, you can get Mom or Dad or Aubree to get you just about anything you want. He seems to really enjoy being able to make his needs and wants known.
* Continuing with the Bryce theme - he's become such sneaky little guy. He's learned to run, but only does so when he's heading to some forbidden item or place. He waits for me to turn my back and *zip* he's goooone. He also has a sixth-sense for knowing when someone has accidently left the bathroom door open, even if just a crack. Away he flies to unwind the toilet paper, slam the lid to the toilet, or pull open the sink cabinets. This evening during the opening prayer for FHE he took the opportunity to sneak away. When he saw me coming after him, he quickly closed the bathroom door to keep me out, laughing all the while! Where does he come up with this stuff?!
* Bryce is also entering his destucto phase. The only thing he likes better than pulling down books, throwing blocks and balls, knocking all the fridge magnets on the floor, and wreaking havoc wherever he goes, is playing with shoes. He used to put the shoes in his mouth, but now he's content to mess up his Dad's neat rows and carry them around the house. He has a secret hiding spot behind the computer desk and I've found a few shoes back there.
*Aubree's pretend play is quite amusing. In her latest scenarios, I am Belle from Beauty and the Beast (which sure beats being the wicked step-mother which was my last long-term role). "So," I asked her one day, "does that mean Daddy's the Beast?" "Yes," she replied, but you have kids, so that means he's already been turned into a prince." She has also been insisting that she is a "baby princess." That can get annoying because, as we all know, babies can't talk and like to be carried. Aubree also enjoys giving her dolls and stuffed animals names. Some names are more traditional. For example, she calls one of her dolls "Lila Joan." Other names are more creative. She dubbed one of her stuffed dogs "Pinso." The amazing thing to me is that she remembers these off-the-wall names and is fairly consistent in using them. A few months ago she started calling Bryce "Givee." I don't know where or why she came up with that, but it's starting to stick...
* For "school" this month Aubree and I have been learning about bugs and insects. I wasn't too thrilled about the topic (bugs? no thanks!), but our friends were doing the same thing so we went along with them. As we've gone through these different themes, the biggest thing I've learned is how little I really know and understand. It's pretty sad, really. I have to learn things right along with Aubree. We did pretty well at the beginning of the month, but then we got a little hung-up on butterflies. There are just way too many fun butterfly books and crafts (plus, doesn't it sound better to learn about butterflies than, oh say - cockroaches?). One of our favorite activities was decorating butterfly and flower sugar cookies. That's a guaranteed hit with Aubree since she's a sugar-fiend, but what she ended up liking the best was the fact that she got to use the knife all by herself.
* About a month ago I went to pick up Aubree from Sunbeams and her teacher related the following conversation:
Teacher: Aubree, you're so smart.
Aubree: Yeah, I know.
Teacher: That's because you have such smart parents.
Aubree: (thinks for a minute, then answers) "No, I'm much smarter than they are."
* I guess sometimes kids have to learn things the hard way. The other night Aubree was "hepping" Mark make dinner when for some yet-to-be-determined reason, she decided to touch the burner. The result? Lots of tears, a nasty blister, and a vow to "never, NEVER" touch the stove again.
* Last week I took the kids to the zoo again. We spent a little bit of time looking at our favorite animals before trying out some new adventures. Of course, Bryce didn't want anything to do with the stroller and Aubree begged and pleaded to ride. That's what I like to call a lose-lose situation. Thank goodness for my sling! We took the opportunity to go on the little train ride right through "Africa." We were the only passengers on the train. We got so close to an ostrich we could have reached out and touched it. I thought that was neat, but the kids weren't overly impressed. I spent most of the ride trying to keep Bryce from jumping off. The majority of our time at the zoo was spent in their new "paws-on" exhibit. They have wading pools for the kids to play in, complete with buckets, toys, and fountains. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius! Aubree had a blast. Bryce was less sure of the whole situation and preferred to stay sitting with me watching what was going on. It's so hot here already that I'm sure we'll make use of the pools frequently.
*I have to take a minute to brag about my cub scouts. They made the coolest dinosaur diorama out of paper-mache. I was so impressed!

*Finally, here are a few pictures from our recent car washing adventure (as a side note...why didn't we wash the cars earlier? It's been months since Florida has had any rain and it's a well known fact that as soon as you wash your car, it will rain, as proven by the torrential downpours today).

We're growing an Aubree tree.

What She Really Thinks

Aubree came home from primary today bearing gifts for me for Mother's Day. Thanks to her wonderful Sunbeam teachers, she made me a fabulous "gold" noodle necklace (in all seriousness, I've always wanted a noodle necklace made just for me from one of my kids). She also brought home a paper titled "All About My Mommy." Her teachers asked her a series of questions about me and typed up her answers. Here's what she said:

1. How old is your mom? 25
2. How tall is your mom? This tall! (raises her hand above her head)
3. How much does your mom weigh? 24 pounds
4. What is your mom really good at? Helping me clean my room.
5. What makes mom happy? Sharing my toys.
6. What is your mom's favorite food? chicken
7. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? To the mall.
8. What do you and your mom do together? Play!
9. What is something mom always says to you? I love you!
10. How does your mom make you laugh? She tickles me.

In my defense, the only time we go to the mall is for "Momtopia," which is a monthly activity for kids, and even then - we've only gone twice. I wish I were still 25, although I suppose I'm glad I don't weigh just 24 pounds. Usually when I ask her how much she thinks I weigh she says, "two forty-two!" I really love that girl!