Not to be forgotten

Avery: "Do you think Santa will take my binky if he sees me with it?"
Andy: "No."

A few minutes go by and Avery is calling "Dad!" from behind her closed door. Why?

Avery: "I don't want my binky anymore. Put it on the shelf because I'm 4."


Thanks to a nice lady from church, we had pre-made cookie dough in the fridge. So when Abigail asked if we could make cookies for Santa as I was making dessert for the family party and cleaning up, I said yes. She was SO delighted. She said, "Now I will find out if Santa is real or not. If the cookies are gone, he's real."
Warren wrote a note: "FOR SANTA ONLY!!!" and Abigail wrote: "THANCYOUFOOTHETOOS" (Thank you for the toys). Then she asked me, "Do you think other kids have left out cookies and soda for Santa?" I think she thought it was her original idea.

It's Dr. Jennings to You/Just to Get a Binder?

It's official! Andy is a full-fledged Ph.D! It was a really moving, rewarding experience to attend Commencement. It never occurred to me that I would shed a few tears, but I did. Either Andy or I has been in school our entire 8.5 years of married life, so this is really the end of an era. I am so proud of Andy and grateful he never put our "real" life on hold to achieve this dream.

This is one of Andy's committee co-chairs, Dr. Barcelo. She was instrumental in getting us to Paris a few years ago. Thank you Helene!

The big picture! Afterward, we went out to dinner at Monti's La Casa Vieja with Andy's parents, my parents and Sarah. Good food, good company and good conversation all around. Thank you Gordon and Lindy for dinner and to ALL of you for coming.

Here's the "after-party" picture! We got Blizzards at DQ and ate them on the rug together (the table is covered in my Etsy mess.) Then Andy got dressed again and walked around the room ceremoniously/silly while I played "Pomp and Circumstance" on the piano. The kids loved it. Then he acted out getting his diploma and his picture taken. Warren took the diploma cover, looked inside and said, "You did all that work just to get this binder with only one folder inside?" Yep, Warren, he did.

Avery Avery Avery

This picture was taken Avery's first day of dance class. Oh how she is loving it, then and now! Several nights a week, she and Abigail put on "shows" on the rug/stage. They dim the lights, usually turn on "Ordinary Miracle" or "New York" by Alicia Keys and fight over who gets to dance. They are actually quite good; I mean, they use a lot of what they are taught in ballet.
This next story is totally unrelated to ballet, but definitely worth sharing about Avery. A few weeks ago, Avery excitedly and proudly announced to me, ''Mom! I am going to have 3 nipples!" I was stunned, and trying not to laugh at what she found to be so wonderful. I asked, "Really?! Where?" She pointed out her 2 exisiting and some spot/scab/bump on her chest that she took to be a blessed third one growing. LOL! I replied, "Oh, sweety, you just want 2. Two is the best amount to have." Avery looked a little happily-sheepish and said, "Oh, okay" with a smile on her face, like, "Phew, either way, I'm covered."

(Sometimes I go to Picasa and find my kids have been photo editing, as is the case with these last 2 pictures. I thought it was funny, so I left them for you to see.)

Getting in to Giving

Warren's class is doing a Secret Santa gift exchange all week. Today he told me he gave the little girl he has "broken rocks--the shiny kind that have some crystal in them." Hmm. I was a little worried. But then he really got excited when I suggested he make a coloring book. He chose 24 pictures and printed them, punched them and tied them into a coloring book. He had me do the cover writing so she wouldn't recognize his writing; I had to explain that 2nd grade boy handwriting his pretty hard to disguies, even if you try to write "really ugly" as he suggested. Still, he couldn't hold back when he got into it and dres some jewels and a princess after coloring the lettering in. After he drew the princess--which Abigail had been BEGGING to let her draw--he asked her, "I drew a princess dress, and I'm not sure if it looks bad. Abigail, does it look good?" "Yeah--actually, no" replied Abigail. Since I had just given a lesson about gifts from the heart, I chided, "Abigail, is that a gift from the heart to say that?" To which, Warren responded enthusiastically, "No mom, it's good Abigail told me the truth. I really wanted to know if it looked good or bad."
Warren also made a purse with some small paper trinkets, and on the back cover of the coloring book, he taped a pocket, decorated it with fun foam and put in a coupon redeemable for "one paper airplane made by [him.]" He is so excited to give his gifts.

2010 Thanksgiving Parade

Madeleine didn't get into the festivities so much.

LOVE love LOVE this picture of Avery.

Strung out along the parade "route."

Yes, Warren carried the "house" to symbolize he was thankful for his house.

My Abigail

Tonight for family night we made cards/tags/ornaments; whatever you could do with self-adhesive foam and paper. Abigail kept saying, "Tonight is so fun, isn't it?" and "I like you mom." From the child who has taken to saying "Whatever" whenever she gets frustrated with me or the situation, this is music to my ears. It reminded me how much Abigail thrives on creativity.
A few weeks ago, she made this HO HO HO banner all by herself. She chose the paper, cut it, punched it, strung it, did the writing. She even took it outside for a photo shoot. She set it up just like she'd seen me do in my Etsy shop. Then when she was done with this one, she stamped 4 of her own HO HO HO banners, modeled after mine. She proudly gave them to her friends and our neighbor. I have got to go over and get a picture of it hanging in his house. It is pure Christmas lovin'.

Every year at school, there is a Thanksgiving feast, and this year Andy carved the turkey. This is a big event, and everybody watches you and your skill--or lack thereof. It was getting a little long, so I asked the kindergarten/preschool class if they could sing "Dry Bones" as Andy carved, since he had just told them about the bones. They agreed to do it and Abigail immediately sprang into action, coming up front and facing her class to lead them in song. She loves to lead and organize.

Also every Thanksgiving is our very small and very homegrown children's parade. This year was so busy I almost skipped it, but I knew it meant a lot to Abigail, so we did it. She made her own "float" to pull. All I did was tape the banner on the side. She also chose her outfit, an old dress of my sister's that we keep in the dress-up bin. Abigail just loves it.

Why We Have Family Meals

It's Sunday and we are all in the backyard, eating mac and cheese (thank you Joyce Packard for teaching me how to make the real stuff!), swinging, talking and climbing on the fort. (My kids also tell me there is a worm garden somewhere, but I haven't seen it yet.) I am lying on the trampoline, silently laughing at Warren's latest question:

"Why is a bowl of macaroni and cheese the opposite of a swimming pool?"

Really?! What is going on in there? He explained, a bowl of mac and cheese is hot at the bottom and cold at top, but a swimming pool has it's hottest water at the top and the coldest at the bottom. (To her credit, just moments before, Abigail informed us to "Always take from the top, and not the bottom." I thought she meant like in the grocery store--don't take the cabbage from the bottom of the pile. But she meant mac and cheese.)

On Monday we were eating breakfast together and Warren asked, "Is that company that McKane's brother owns going to put the Christmas video on YouTube this year?" (For the past 2 years Scrapbook.com has made a Christmas video featuring employees kids answering Christmas questions. Our kids still think they are supposed to give the "right" answers, not realizing how funny the "wrong" ones are. Like the first year, the cameraman sat W down and said, "We're going to ask you some questions," and W queried, "Are the math problems?" Last years video is the one at the top of the page) Anyway, back to story. Andy replied, "No, they're going a different direction this year." Warren looked a little sad and Abigail protested, "But I know better this year!"

Shorts

from Warren as I lay in bed next to him after reading "Geronimo" together:

"The only hard part about staying awake is my eyes; they just want to shut. My body is full of energy but my eyes can't stay open."

from a stranger as he held the door for Avery:

"She is a really beautiful child."

I used to worry about Avery because she looked so much like me.

A sweet moment with Abigail:

We went to Maricopa Stake's Evening of Excellence to hear some music I helped notate and ended up staying. We sat side by side for an hour. I had my arm around her. After a few minutes, she freed her arm from my side and stuck it behind my back. It didn't even reach all the way across. I can still feel the warmth of her small hand.

Madeleine is talking so much, but her singing is even better. She sings along with the kids' LPM CD's, and not just on the normal words--she does the sol-sol-do and mi-re-do parts. She loves to sing. She is fearless. I took her on the climber at the Children's Museum of Phoenix and she went all over, gaining confidence to go further each time, despite seeing the ground 15 -20 feet below, or being up against a wall of clear glass.

This reminds me of family night on Monday. I blindfolded each of the kids one at a time--in the dark, outside--and walked them at least 100 feet from our house. In Warren's case, across the street by a cactus-filled yard, then asked them to find their way home. I asked each if they wanted help and offered directions. As I watched them stumble in the dark, hands outstretched, W with a goofy grin and Abigail with tiny nervous steps, I was suddenly overwhelmed with humility for the trust these children place in me. Not one of them gave up or got angry with me; they trusted every direction I gave them, even when they didn't understand. I wondered if I was worthy of that pure trust.

Why am I blogging again? I can't let these moments be forgotten.

In Which Abigail Gives a Gift

Abigail has a very good friend, Gabriel, who she loves dearly. As she gets dropped home from school by his mom each day, she calls out, "Tell Gabriel I love him!" This behavior isn't limited to Gabriel, but, he might be the most frequent recipient. Anyway, growing up has been hard on their friendship, at least from Abigail's perspective. Just last week she was telling me she wasn't sure they could be friends anymore since, "All Gabriel ever talks about is Batman, and sometimes I want to talk about princesses and stuff." Really, she mentioned it several times over a few weeks. Well, Gabriel had a birthday and Abigail must be gaining perspective on the give and take of friendship because she requested we give him:
-a CD of "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells"
-a coloring book of Batman
-a picture she would draw of Batman

I made the recording, just accompaniment for him to sing to, and she is so excited to give it to him. After school today, we printed off several Batman coloring pages she chose for him. After stapling them together, she made a cover for the book: CULRE GABREL and colored it all in. She drew the picture of Batman and friends--I know Batgirl was there, but there were more--yesterday. Of course, she selected her own gift bags and couldn't resist giving them to him when she saw him today.

Later I got this email from his mom:
"I just had to share with you how excited Gabriel was about the gift Abigail gave him. He loves it so much! He already colored all the pictures while he was at Grandma's tonight. Then when he was finished, he dictated a story to Grandma for each page. When he got home, he wanted me to read the story to him for bed. Daniel said that he was asking all sorts of questions about growing up, getting married and if he would remember being little. It eventually came out that he was worried that he would forget to marry Abigail when he grows up.
I just can't stop laughing and smiling at how cute they are!"

What a sweet gift from the heart.

Preschool and Avery

Avery,

You started preschool this month--September 2010. I almost waited to have you start--you are so sweet to have around, but you wanted to go so much! Every time we've visited Warren and Abigail's school before you've always been wide-eyed and engaged by all the "works." The night before your first day was Preschool Open House; W&A had already attended their open house, so I just planned to take you, but Abigail was begging you to let her go. After much pleading, you told her she could come, "If you wear Sunday clothes."

You were so delighted to find your name on a cubby, and you pointed out all the letters. You are really good at this. Often as we drive, you call out from the backseat, "I just saw 2 letters from my name! A & V" or whatever letters you saw. You ask me what signs say, and often ask, "What is this word that has a {letter} in it?"

As I watched you both, spontaneously holding hands, walking together into this new phase of life, I was so grateful you have each other. I hope you are always dear friends like you are now.
The next morning, you were thrilled to be getting out of the car at drop-off. All your life you've stayed and called out your goodbyes and I love you's. Now you were going. You were bursting with excitement.

It's been 3 weeks now, and tonight you were telling Aunt Tiffany--via email--about preschool. This is what you said:
"I did button work. [long pause] Um, you get a sponge and there is water and a plain bowl and you dip it in and you put it into the plain bowl. And I did --I know one, I know one! Puzzles! And then--that's all. No, I did another work. A hammering work, and then a pouring work where it has green things and you put it into the plain one. A pink tower. I think that's all. Oh, play time outside, and then you wash your hands when you're going inside and then you sit down at gathering again and they pick someone to get--to set the tables, and I did one time one day. They picked us to go back to gathering again after we did that and get our lunch boxes. And we didn't have to go the fridge, because some people got them out. And then we get up and we get all our dishes and put them in the dishwasher and go back to the table and we get choosed by the table leader--we go like this, we point to each other--to close our lunch boxes and line up by the door and sit on the benches and wait for our moms and dads. Oh one more thing--when we, when we, when we, hmm, when moms pick us up and then we sometimes go with Gabriel's dad, or Nicci--she's Gabriel's mom--or our mom picks us up. And that's all."
It took about 5 minutes of chatter interspersed with thought-filled pauses. You were so animated. Pure delight.

Warren, a quote and memory

"Dad, can we go to Mars together when I'm 16?" (After Andy has just explained to him that no human has ever been to any other planet)


Several minutes later, after reading how far apart the 2 planets are, Warren just asked: "When they [Mars and Earth] are only 35 million miles apart, can we go there?" [As opposed to when they are 248 million miles apart]

This reminds me of 2 years ago when Warren was sure he was going to be able to build a rocket to the moon out of a cardboard box in the backyard. He planned to take my dad along, and if he missed dinner, no worries: he'd packed an easy-open can of pineapple. This went on for weeks.

Responsibility Week

Every now and then I go on a parenting kick. The first week of April was one of those times. I don't remember what else I did, but I know there was a lot more than the story I'm about to share. My kids used to lose a lot of toys to the Gunny Sack. After a while, he got full and forgotten in my closet. I have a really hard time actually giving my kids things away, so this was convenient for me too. However, it all came to a head when Warren rationally pointed out, "Mom, it's a good thing we have the gunny sack so we can have more toys since you store some for us, too." Ouch. Solution? Sam was having a yard sale to raise money for Relay for Life. So, since the stuff was mine now, I donated all "my" stuff in the Gunny and arranged for a special "night before preview" at which my kids could go and purchase anything they wanted with their own money. And I made sure I paid them the 6 weeks backpay of allowance. And I made sure Sam charged them high prices. (Avery had saved several coins and was the exception: we just had her pay a few coins each time she bought something, but most of it wasn't hers anyway) They bought a lot of it back and chose not to purchase some of it, and nice reminder to me of how little "stuff" is really valued by kids, and adults. The "stuff" they did buy back is now played with very frequently, e.g.: Warren has rollerbladed at least a dozen times since then, more than he ever did in the previous 2 years of owning his rollerblades. I was able to donate over $20 to my brother's Relay for Life funds--through my children :)
I remembered something else about Responsibility Week: my kids missed breakfast once or twice on a school day and Warren had to take his clothes in a bag on the ride to school. Somehow he managed to get dressed before the carpool kids got in the car. And I promise he had his seatbelt on whenever the car was moving. One day when Warren disobeyed and ran back in the house to get dressed when we were supposed to be leaving, he forgot his lunch and I let him. And I didn't take it to school. And he was fine.
This last picture has nothing to do with responsibility week; it is just so funny I had to share. I was walking out of church and saw this in the back of someone's golf cart parked in the lot. Bishop's golf cart, actually. Upon closer examination, I realized it was 2 filtering masks leftover from our ward's alley clean-up the previous day, but really, can you see why I did a double take and still laugh when I look at it?

I Love Creating

These are some of my favorite creations--ones that make me smile when I look at them. I think creating things with my hands and voice is so therapeutic. I want to get the "rest of my life" better organized, so I can really create some more beautiful, permanent works for my home: words on walls, pictures in my empty frames, pictures on my empty walls...

This strawberry bouquet was a Family Craft Day, aka Friday Therapy, creation from April. I had so much fun piping chocolate on those "roses." Really, it was therapy. It was fun to give away, too.

These banners were customs for a wedding planner, and these are the photos she sent me of how she staged them. I loved her idea to hang it on a chair.

This is my latest holiday banner, and I am especially pleased how I photographed it. I've had those flags since last year, when I decided sewing them on to the ribbon was too much work. I felt guilty I had so many unused, which is so my personality. However, I am so proud of myself for thinking of putting them in my old jars, vases and cups for this display. I smile every time when I see it.

Don't You Wish You Were as Cute as Avery?

April 1: Our good friends brought over a bunch of clothes for my girls--truly, I acquire most of the girls' clothes this way, as they seem to be in no short supply around here. They were set in a nice, organized stacks on the couch. Finally Avery could stand it no longer, and put together this fabulous ensemble, complete with fairy wand and shoes. (Avery never wears shoes in the house.) Don't you just want to gather her in your arms and hug her?

Easter Eggs

April 3: Yes, that is egg on Madeleine's face. I think Madeleine was the biggest hidden "egg" of all; the picture below is of her, freshly discovered, in the playhouse at Tutu's. (And yes, Abigail was there, but somehow missed any pictures. She, Avery and Madeleine all wore the same pink hoodie shirt. They were tickled pink to be matching.)

Waiting for Mom to Snuggle

March 29th: It was Avery's night to "snuggle" in my big bed, but I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep when she was, so she waited loyally for me on the kitchen floor wrapped up in a dish towel. (They were a wedding gift, years ago; I bet I never anticipated their use tonight, or tied on to my kids as Super Hero capes) Avery is so dear and sweet. Since she still naps in the afternoon, she is often the last one lying awake in bed, and will come out and join me and Andy in the family room as we work. Like tonight: I was watching old video from our Paris trip and she came and sat on my lap and laughed along with me. Oh she is so dear.