SNOW!

The Wisdom of Children

I've mentioned our annual desert trip. I failed to mention how much we love this trip and look forward to it every single year. This is a BIG family reunion involving several generations of my husbands family. There are usually about 130-150 people who camp out in the desert for 3 days and 4 nights. We all have such a great time 4-wheeling and riding the trails all over this area where my husband's ancestors lived. It is a really sacred place for the family.

This years trip was wonderful and fun right up until Saturday, the last full day we had on our trip. My husband's cousin's wife was killed in a tragic 4-wheeling accident. The details are unimportant. She was wearing a helmet. It was a complete accident, and we all know that nothing could have been done to prevent it and that knowledge has been comforting. Even still it has been so very hard for all of us, most especially her husband.

The day that we got home from the desert, with the pain of Marina's death fresh in my heart, I got on Facebook to see what had been said about her death. Word had spread fast. Between Marina's page and her husbands, so many people had said so many kind things about her.

As I read these wonderful things about Marina, I cried and cried and cried. My sweet short one asked me why I was crying. I asked him if he remembered Marina. He's only five, but he has an incredible memory, so I knew he would.  He said that he did remember her so I explained to him that she had died and I was sad because I was going to miss her. Then he said to me with the wisdom of a five year old, "But, mom, she'll rise with living breath."

I'm so grateful for my sweet short one. I hope he never forgets the knowledge he has of Heavenly Father and eternal life.

This post is in loving memory of Marina Toffanelli-Birch. You were a bright spot of sunshine in our lives for the short time we had you. We miss you dearly.

The Escape Artist

Every year, one weekend in October, my husband's family and extended family go camping out in the desert of Southern Nevada where his grandmother was born and where his great grandparents and great great grandparents lived. This is a family reunion that lasts for several days with about 130 people. It's great fun! We just got back from this year's trip a week ago, and there are many stories to tell.

One afternoon while we were camping, the shortest one was doing the head bob during lunch. He was so tired he just could not stay awake. So after lunch my husband put him down for a nap in our tent and then my husband went off to go shooting with his cousins. The shortest one fussed for a bit and then was quiet, so I assumed all was well. Yes, that was my mistake. But in mydefense, that's how it works at home.

So a little while later, here comes the shortest one walking around the end of my husband's uncle's trailer. My brother-in-law had just been over by our tent, so I asked him if he let the shortest one out. He said he hadn't but he'd heard him rustling around by the door. I thought, oh no, the tent must be destroyed inside!

So I went to our tent to see what the damage was. The door was still zipped. I unzipped it and went inside. The tent was fine except that the portable crib was tipped over. So this is what I deduced had happened. The shortest one had rocked the portable crib until it tipped over, which wasn't extremely hard to do since it was on uneven ground in a tent. Then he had shimmied out under the door of the tent.

After that we just didn't put him down for a nap while we were camping. It just worked out better that way.

A Trashcan?

For a while our dishwasher became a collector of odd things. The shortest one decided that it was his personal garbage receptacle. We would find fruit snack wrappers, cereal bar wrappers, whatever garbage he could get his hands on. He had yet to figure out how to open doors, so this was the easiest place for him to dispose of trash. I suppose we should have been grateful that he would "throw stuff away," but occasionally (like when my hubby would run the dishwasher) we wouldn't find the wrappers or whatever until after the dishwasher had been ran. In those cases we were left with a bit of a mess. Still pretty stinking funny.

A couple of months ago he discovered how to open doors. It's been downhill since then. He's great at bringing me fruit snacks to open, terrible at throwing them away. :)

Can you hear me now...

The shortest one has become increasingly clever with the electronics. The other day he got ahold of my cell phone. He'd had it for a few minutes when I realized that he was way too entertained with it. So I grabbed it from him and there was some screen like "thank you for your order." I was like "what?????"

Suddenly I had a new message! It was an E-card! That the shortest1 had ordered from the internet that I don't even have service for on my phone. So he logged onto the internet, ordered an E-card, and had it sent back to my phone.

And then there was another message! Another E-card! The same thing!

And then a third message! He had sent three E-cards in the span of about 2 minutes. I can't wait to see this phone bill.

For the record the E-card said, "You Rock!" Not that a not quite 2 year old knows what it says. But it's the thought that counts, right?

A Perfect Storm

With the short one in afternoon kindergarten, from noon until about 12:45 it gets quite hectic at our house. But today it was a perfect storm of badness...

I was trying to make the short ones lunch and then I started to sneeze. Now, I'm not a young girl anymore and I've had a couple of children, so I really had to book it to the bathroom. I'm sitting on the potty when my cell phone rings. Had it been anyone other than my husband I probably would have ignored it. So, I'm on the phone talking to my husband about ridiculous things that seriously could have waited until after my really hectic 45 minutes. Meanwhile, I see a package of cheese slide under the bathroom door and in the background I can hear the short one yelling that the shortest one is trying to help me! Yes, I did scream!

Yes, I did get lunch made. I did get the short one off to school on time. All is well at our house again. Well, as well as it ever is. But I did decide that we needed some rules for that really hectic 45 minutes so that the perfect storm cannot happen again.
1. Mom must go to the bathroom BEFORE trying to make lunch.
2. Dad must not EVER call unless its an absolute emergency during this time.
3. NO cheese in the bathroom EVER.
4. No short one giving me a play by play as he loves to do which just ups the stress level!

A More Hip Version Of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes!"

Before the short one potty trained my husband and I put him in pull ups. It was a conscious decision that we did not take lightly. After having tried to potty train him for over a year at that point, we felt he needed some ownership in his potty training. He knew he had peed in his pull ups, we knew he had peed in his pull ups, so it was up to HIM to change them.

One night my husband had been upstairs getting the boys ready for bed and had just got frustrated, so he came downstairs to do dishes instead. After a while I went upstairs to see what was going on. The short one, still naked as the day he was born from not having changed his pull up before bed, was sitting on the edge of his bed.

The short one says to me, "hey, mom, look!" like he figured out the coolest thing in the world. Then, with the motions and the whole bit he sings, "head, shoulders, penis, toes."

I paused, like I couldn't have heard or saw what I just heard and saw and I said, "what was that, sweetie?"

And he did it again.

My eyes grew large and I started to choke, because I could not laugh. Not there! Not right in front of my 3 year old son who if I laughed at him singing something like that would sing it that way forever more.... especially in .... PRIMARY! And I ran from the room. I ran down stairs and told my husband I couldn't do it. So he goes upstairs and comes right back downstairs and is all disgusted.

I said, "Did he do it for you?"

Husband says, "Do what? Darn kid still won't get ready for bed!"

So I told him. And we laughed. And we laughed. And we laughed. And we laughed. And laughed some more. Then we both went up and got the kids ready for bed without further incident. Then the husband and I laughed some more. :)