Shine On

Bryce earned his first "shiner" the other day.

How did it happen? Hmmm... I'm sure it was a good story...
Oh yes! See, Bryce was looking out the front window and noticed smoke pouring from our neighbor's house. Quickly deducing that the home was on fire, he ran out the door and managed to rescue all 7 of their little children from the blazing inferno! Unfortunately, as he carried the last babe out the door, a beam fell and caught him across the eye. It's but a small price to pay, right?
No?
How about - he was pulling books out of Aubree's bookshelf and then tried to walk on them. The books shifted and while falling, Bryce's eye connected squarely (circularly?) on the knob of their little rocking chair.
Yeah, that one's too boring to be made-up. Must be true.

Well-Child Updates and a Vent

I took Aubree and Bryce to the Doctor's last week for their well-child visits. Both are officially still "well-children."
Aubree is now 40 1/2" tall (75th percentile) and weighs 34 lbs. The doctor told me that her weight is also in the 75th percentile. I laughed. When I got home I looked it up online and found that it's only the 45th percentile - which is still great considering that two years ago she was only in the 3rd percentile. Her eyes are both 25/20 (phew! HUGE relief that she has good eye-sight so far).

On the way to the doctor I mentioned to Aubree that she might get a shot or a spray up her nose (which she had last year). I asked which she would rather have and she said, "a shot." Surprised, I asked why and she answered, "that way I can get a band-aid." Well, of course! Why didn't I think of that?! It turned out she got the nose mist AND a shot. She's the bravest kid I know when it comes to shots. She looked right at me and when the nurse stabbed her, her eyes got big, but then it was over and she said, "that hurt." The end. I think I was closer to tears that she was! When I was four and had to get shots, I believe it took my mom and a number of nurses to hold me down. Is that right, Mom?
Bryce is now 33" tall (90th percentile) and 25 lbs. (50th percentile). It still surprises me that he doesn't weigh more because he eats a TON! On the "what to expect" paper they send home, it reads, "an 18 month old is usually too busy to eat much." Ha ha!! Bryce didn't like his shots one bit. Can't say that I blame him.

Now onto the venting part... Overall, I like our doctor well enough. I think, medically-speaking, he knows what he's talking about. Yet, it seems like at every visit he says something (usually something small) that gets under my skin and leaves me agitated. This visit was no different...
After talking with Aubree for a bit (and learning that she's reading), the doctor turned to me and said, "you need to put this girl in private school for kindergarten next year." He spoke for a few more minutes about this and then made the comment, "she doesn't need to waste any more time at home."
Ugh! Now, I'm going to give the doctor the benefit of the doubt and ASSUME he meant "she'd do fine in kindergarten, there's no need to wait an extra year before putting her in public school." But it still drives me crazy that he used the words "waste" and "time at home" in the same sentence. Because, clearly, her time at home thus far has really been a hindrance for her.
It's more than that though. I am very opinionated and I'm not easily swayed from beliefs to which I hold firmly. I firmly believe that, wherever possible, children in their formative years belong at home with their mother. Again, I know that's not always possible, but I still think it's ideal. No daycare or preschool can adequately take the place of a loving, attentive mother.
I know that the way I feel is not incredibly popular in today's society. Mothers who choose to stay home are often ridiculed or made to feel that they are not contributing to society, not bettering themselves, or (most aggravating of all) somehow putting their child at a "disadvantage."
So, when the doctor makes an off-hand comment to me about my kids "wasting time at home," he will only serve to strengthen my resolve to keep my kids home. But, I wonder if he's saying it to some other mom. Perhaps one who is struggling with her commitment to be home and raise her children. What if, coming from an "expert's" mouth, she hears that she's "wasting their time."
THAT bothers me.

(not) Nursery

Bryce turned 18 months old one month ago. Those of us in the LDS culture know all too well what milestone that age signals - NURSERY (a.k.a. "parental ability to learn from or teach classes"). His first official week I kept him home because he was sick. The next week went surprisingly well - he lasted an hour and a half before he started to get upset. "Hurray!" I thought, "that was WAY easier than I expected."

Ha! That will teach me. The last two weeks have been horrible. He knows what's coming and starts to cry immediately and won't stop! The week before last he cried for 40 minutes! I would never have let him cry so long if I'd known about it, but I was helping the primary practice for the program and the nursery leader was there alone and couldn't come out to find us. I'm sure that's contributed to the continued difficulties. He's okay if Mark or I am in there with him, but freaks out if we leave.
Wish us luck (and patience).

Birthday Wishes

Many months ago I started asking Aubree what she wanted to do for her birthday. "Go camping," she answered, "and get really, really dirty." When her response stayed the same month after month, we decided to honor her request and got reservations at Anastasia Park, an island up near St. Augustine, Fl. We even convinced some dear friends to join us in our camping adventure. Here are some pictures to help tell the story:

Aubree opened a couple of presents before we left on our trip.

We left Thursday morning and spent most of the day site-seeing in St. Augustine. Did you know it's the oldest city in the country? We spent a couple hours taking a tour trolley all around the town. All the history and sites were interesting to see, but it was ridiculously hot (95+ degrees) and humid and that significantly detracted from our enjoyment of the ride.

Fountain of Youth

We also spent a couple hours visiting the Fountain of Youth. What an interesting place! One of the reasons Ponce De Leon thought that this spring was the fountain of youth was because the Indians who lived there averaged 6'6'' tall and lived to be around 80 years old. By contrast, the average European at the time was only 4'5'' tall and lived to be only 40 years old.
We all got to have a drink from the Fountain and we told Aubree that meant she would be three forever. She didn't believe us. There was a strong taste of sulfur in the water and the water at a camping site also had quite a bit of sulfur. Aubree kept calling it "Fountain of Youth water" and loved drinking it.

All my recent pictures of these two seem to involve Aubree trying to keep Bryce in the picture!

We got to our campsite in the late afternoon and set up our new, HUGE tent. I forgot to take a picture, but it was at least 4 times the size of our previous tent. We had a traditional tin-foil dinner, but since we got a late start, we were eating in the dark! While we were eating dinner, the bugs were having us for dinner. Have I mentioned I hate bugs?
After spending a long, hot, breeze-less night in the tent, we woke the next morning ready to celebrate Aubree's 4th birthday. We got together with our friends and had the biggest camping breakfast I've ever heard of: bacon, sausage, eggs, bagels, biscuits, bananas, orange juice, hash browns, english muffins...Crazy, eh? Then we hit the beautiful beach.

Aubree and Ella playing in their specially built "pool"

We built a huge sand cake for Aubree. You can't tell from this picture, but it's actually quite elaborately decorated. In this picture she's trying to blow out the candles. I tried to convince Aubree that between this gorgeous sand cake and her special "birthday s'mores," she didn't need a real birthday cake, but she shot down that argument. So we made cupcakes this week for her to share with her friends in preschool.

Bryce LOVED being at the beach. He loved playing in the sand and being in the waves. Even Aubree overcame her trepidation of the waves in a very serious way - she learned to boogie-board! She claims it's because she's four now and "so brave." She's even asking for a boogie-board for Christmas.

Opening more birthday presents, a task Aubree took very seriously!

That night we had a fancy birthday feast - hot dogs and s'mores. The kids had a great time playing in the woods and even set up a little obstacle course with the extra firewood. Bryce's favorite things were the water spigot and the car - he spent hours with Mark climbing up and around the seats. *shrug* Whatever kept him away from the fire was okay with me!

Checking his hair for bugs??

Saturday morning Mark had to get up early and leave for a church meeting, but the kids and I took our time packing up and heading out. It was a fun trip, definitely too hot, but Aubree says it was just what she wanted. It's a good thing that camping trips are so memorable, because they're A LOT of work!
Happy 4th Birthday, Aubree!!!

Thirty-Bird

At the end of September, Mark celebrated his thirtieth birthday. Hurray for Mark!! Since then, Aubree's been calling him a "thirty-bird."
For his birthday, we had the BEST present EVER planned - new eyes. We recently discovered that our insurance covers Lasik, but only until the beginning of the new year. Mark had his consultation visit the day before his birthday. In preparation for the visit, he had to wear his glasses for three weeks. Since Mark absolutely detests wearing his glasses, this was a major feat.
Unfortunately, our great birthday gift ended up being a total flop - turns out Mark's not a good candidate for Lasik. Hrrmmpphh! Stupid corneal tissue!
Alas, we still love Mark - bad eyes, glasses and all. (:
PS I was going to post a picture of Mark in his glasses, but that would kind of be like rubbing salt in a raw wound.

How in the world?!?

To continue with yesterday's theme...

Today is laundry day. After washing the first load I went to move the clothes to the dryer. Upon opening the lid I noticed a crayon. "Oops," I thought, "a crayon is not a good thing, I hope it didn't cause any problems." Fast forward five minutes:
How did that happen? Judging from the state of the clothes, all those crayons used to have wrappers. I'm pretty sure my kids are not to blame. But where did those crayons come from and how did I possibly miss them? This was a load of underwear!
Oh well, it could have been much worse. Imagine the same scenario, only in the dryer! And on the positive side, now my washing machine is awfully pretty.

Things that make you say "hmmm..."

Here are a few examples of the kinds of out-of-the-blue questions Aubree's been asking me in the last few weeks:
"Mom, are you ever greedy?"
"Mom, after the war in heaven when some spirits followed Satan, what were their names?"
"Mom, is Santa Claus real?"
"Mom, after we die and go live with Heavenly Father, then what do we do?"