The Placebo Effect

When Leah was a very small baby, Anna and I decided that we didn’t want to settle for an old-fashioned baby monitor; we wanted video. We purchased a cheap one from (I believe) Geeks.com, and when I say “cheap,” I mean one that the manufacturers didn’t even want to take credit for. Seriously. The thing was made on some obscure Eastern Asian nation and came in a box that said “Baby Monitor” or something like that, with no other identifying information. And yet, it worked well enough that when we moved into our current home, we bought two more: one for David’s room, one for the toy room (not that the last was ever installed).

Of course, the problem with this setup was that we wound up having two identical monitors sitting on my bedside table. What’s more, the monitors slightly interfered with each other, and often received interference from wireless networks and even radio stations around us. (Under certain atmospheric conditions, we could actually listen to the radio not on the monitor, but on the camera! Go figure that one out!) Every night before we went to sleep, I would have to position each of the monitors just so, so the static wouldn’t keep us up all night. It was, suffice to say, quite annoying, so after a while, we started looking for a better solution.

Enter ZOpid. The system was (and is) advertised as “Digital Interference–free,” which was of course a big selling point for us. It was (is) also expandable up to eight cameras on a single monitor, cycling through as many or as few as you like. Awesome. Also, the reviews were fairly positive, which is definitely a big deal.

What I found most compelling, though, was that the manufacturers themselves were right there on the forefront: every time a review included a complaint, it was followed by a comment from the engineers: making suggestions, inviting the customer to send it back, etc.. That’s a company that cares about its users’ experience (or at least continued sales). So, we bought the system and one additional camera. It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been quite good—and not a drop of interference, ever. Furthermore, the company has been very good about supporting what few issues we’ve had, even promising firmware updates to incorporate some of my feature requests and suggestions. Nice.

So about a month ago, Leah’s camera started having some issues: first of all, it would crash at fairly random intervals, requiring a reset. Second, when I tried to reset it, the reset button would usually get stuck, requiring me to fiddle with it until I could get it to pop back out. Obviously not good. So last week, I finally got around to contacting ZOpid about it. They gave me some suggestions, but none did the trick, so they finally issued me an RMA number so I could send it back. On Thursday night, I did so—without mentioning it to Leah. I held my breath as I turned off her light, but she never even noticed the empty wall mount.

Until tonight.

Those of you who know Leah may realize that she’s a very sensitive child. Her camera is very much a security blanket for her, despite the fact that she usually just gets out of bed and comes into our room, anyway. So tonight, when she noticed it was missing, the realization was met with great concern coupled with crying. I tried my best to calm her down, to explain that the camera was broken and a new one would be here within a few days, but that wasn’t enough. My little girl was scared, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Or was there?

I told Leah I’d be right back and walked to my office. I opened up the cabinet where the third of the previous cameras had spent pretty much its entire life, and where it thankfully still resided. I then returned to Leah’s room with that old camera and a roll of masking tape and used the latter to attach the former to the empty mount. The power cord wouldn’t fit (and probably wouldn’t have worked, anyway), but I was able to make it look convincing enough. The old camera isn’t compatible with our current monitor, and even if it were, it’s neither turned on nor even plugged in! But its presence is enough for Leah to feel safe and loved, and while it’s not a long-term solution, that’s ultimately what matters.

I love the innocence of youth—and I love, even more, being her dad. :-)

Dream World

David came into our room at about 6:20 this morning and lay down in our bed. As I lay there with him, I decided to take the opportunity to have a conversation with him: nothing urgent, just keeping the lines of communication open. I asked him what he did yesterday, and after several false starts (including Wednesday’s preschool activity and last Friday’s family picnic in the park), he finally started down a very… um… interesting story.

“I saw a very friendly monster!”

“Really! What did he look like?”

“He was an orange drop!”

“Oh! Like a gumdrop?”

“Yeah!”

“And where was this monster?”

“He was walking across the cornfield.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

"Was this a dream you had?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. What was the monster’s name?”

“His… his name was David, too.”

“Really! He was David 2?”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re David 1 and he’s David 2?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

“And there was another monster!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And his name was David, too. And he was a blue drop.”

“Really? He was a blue gumdrop?”

“No, he was a blue rain drop.”

“Really! Could you see through him?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay.”

This conversation continued for quite a while, with David telling me about a few other gumdrop monsters in his dream: a green one named George; a purple one named Olivia; another purple one named Leah; and Leah’s twin sister, a red one named Carly. I asked, “And they were all coming across the cornfield together?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“And then there was a big farm monster that came and put his foot on all of them!”

“He stepped on them?”

“Yeah!”

“Wow!”

By this time, Anna was back: “What did the farm monster look like?”

David’s reply: “A FARM!!!”

Ask a silly question….

The Power of Prayer

In the last couple of months, David has really come into his own when it comes to prayer. He’s stopped screaming and refusing to do it, and he’s even beginning to use some of his own words instead of just spouting off “vain repetitions”! In other words, I’m really proud of him.

Of course, the fact that David has reached this point does not mean he has magically overcome his little-Daddy temper. And thus begins today’s episode.

Today at lunch, I requested that David ask a blessing on the food. This request, regardless of which child fulfills it, is always met with a prayer that includes many wonderful things—gratitude for Grandma and Pop, prayers that the new meetinghouse and temple each be completed quickly, prayers that our baby will finally get here, etc.. However, while going down their lists, the children quite often neglect one rather important thing: namely, the food.

As David continued to pray, it became apparent to me that our lunch was not going to be one of the many things he would be thankful for. So, as I often do, I interrupted his “In the name…” with a simple reminder, “food.”

David freaked… out. I have never seen him get so mad about this particular reminder. He started off with a typical “NOOO!!!”, which was quickly followed by a “BY MYSELF!!!”

“Okay, David,” I replied. “You can…”

“—BY MYSEEEELLLLF!!!”

“Fine, David. You can do it by yourself.”

David re-bowed his head, was silent for a moment, then looked back up at me and asked, “What was it again?”

“Food.”

“By myself.”

“Sure.”

“And thank thee for the food….”

I love it when he doesn’t need any help. ;-)

Vacation 2010

I finally have a few pictures ready to share from our vacation last month.

On the second evening of our vacation, we went to dinner at IHOP with Aunt Jaci, Uncle Justin, a family friend named Jay, Grandma, and Pop. IHOP features a clown who does face painting, temporary tattoos, and balloon animals on Friday nights. There is also a "special visitor" each Friday. That week it was Diego. David kept alternating between whining that he wasn't close enough to Diego and being terrified of Diego, all the while refusing to get a tattoo or face paint. :-/ In true Leah fashion, she was all for everything. She got a beautiful easter egg tattoo, some butterfly face paint, and a balloon creation. The clown mistakenly assumed Leah would want a butterfly balloon, but Leah set her straight pretty quickly and requested a princess. All of the adults in our party watched in awe as this talented clown twisted the balloons into something that actually looks like a princess!

When we first arrived at the family's little beach house (or bungalow as we sometimes call it), the kids were incredibly excited. They couldn't believe they each had their own tv and alarm clock in their rooms!

Leah made her room her own just a little bit by unpacking her clothes and putting them in the drawers. This is so Leah, and we thought it was totally cute.

David got a bit confused and kept asking why we had moved into a new house. He then proceeded to sweep the floor.

More to come! (And at this rate I'll still be talking about vacation 2010 when vacation 2011 comes around :-P )

She Needs Her Privacy

At ages 4½ and almost 3½, respectively, Leah and David still generally share a bath. Thus, it is particularly humorous that immediately preceding this evening’s bath time (while David was running around naked), still-clothed Leah ran into the bathroom and demanded that he stay out. The reason?

“You can’t be in here when I’m changing into my nothing!”

Three-year-old Logic

A conversation between me and David, about two minutes ago, in its entirety:

Me: “David, please give that back to Leah.”

David: “But she’s not screaming for it.”

How can you keep a straight face to that?

She's growing up!

The next few weeks will bring some changes in our little Leah's life. First of all, some friends of ours have invited her to participate in hula dance lessons, and she will have a performance on September 4th. Leah has always loved dancing and has looked forward to the day when she can take formal dance lessons. We had intended to have her start dance lessons with another good friend from church earlier in the year, but, as happens so easily when you let it, time got away from us. It will be nice to see how she does with these lessons so that we can determine whether it would be good to have her continue. She is so incredibly excited! As soon as she found out when her first practice was going to be, she walked up and told anyone who would listen, "I'm going to learn how to hula dance on Thursday at 4:00!"

When we return from vacation in a few weeks, Leah will also start preschool. I'm having little mommy twinges about letting her go since this was to be my last year with her all to myself, but I know she will absolutely love it. Besides, I'm sure David could also benefit from a few hours a week with mommy all to himself. ;-) It has been quite the ordeal trying to determine which preschool we want to go with. There are quite a few in our area, so at least we had some choice. It got a little overwhelming at times. We have almost certainly decided on one, though, and we will be visiting to make that final decision and hopefully get Leah enrolled sometime in the next week.

I've had a few moments lately when I just haven't been able to figure out where the time has gone. One was over the weekend when I came across some pictures of David from early last year. While I love the stage he's in right now, I found myself longing to relive those earlier days, too. I had a similar moment with Leah this morning right after she woke up. I asked her to come to me. I picked her up and held her like a little baby. My mind brought me back to some of the first times I held her as a brand new infant. My mind couldn't grasp what all has happened in those almost 5 years! Was there ever really a time that I wasn't a mother? A time when I cried in anguish because I didn't know if I'd ever be a mother? Oh, how our lives have been so richly blessed in these 5 years. Nothing compares!

I've never been that great at preserving personal history. Blogs like this one have probably come closest, but I *gasp* really don't have a baby book for either of the children, for example. As such, it is so hard to recreate in my mind those days when my children were younger. I could tell you the more general things like Jeff changed jobs when Leah and David were "x" years old, but I so miss the specific feelings, thoughts, sights, sounds, and smells of an earlier time. I was telling Jeff how I hope we get to re-live (even if just in our minds) our favorite parts from this life after we die. I know that specific moments from my children's young lives will be among those.

Melting My Heart

Sometime last night, Leah made her way into our room with her sleeping bag and spent the rest of the night, sleeping on our floor. When I woke up in the morning (Anna having already gotten out of bed), my little girl climbed into our bed and snuggled in, just holding me as tightly as she could. Talk about the best feeling in the world….

Anyway, given opportunities like this, I always make a specific point to tell my children how much I love them and how wonderful they are. This time, on a whim, I also posed a question: “Leah, why are you such a good girl?’

Her response: “Because you taught me to be.”

Wow. Just… wow.

Not Enough Dora to Go Around

A few days ago, Leah tore a page out of her Dora the Explorer coloring book and starting putting stickers on it. Somewhere along the line, this picture somehow wound up on my bedside table, and a scan (in case you hadn’t guessed) can be seen at right.


This morning, as I walked into my bedroom, I came upon Leah explaining the picture to her little brother. She was pointing out that there were three stickers featuring Dora. “That,” she explained, “is because there are three Doras: one regular Dora, and two robot Doras.”


And isn’t that just what the world needs?

Reflections

Nothing makes me feel better than the squeezy hugs and sloppy kisses my kids give me each day. There is nothing more sacred than the love and trust I see in their eyes. There is nothing more awesome nor more terrifying than being the center of an innocent child's world. I feel so blessed and privileged to be a mother to these special children. They are my world!

Disturbing Dreams

The aliens were attacking, flooding the entire Earth some 30-40 feet deep. Thankfully, the government was able to issue SCUBA-type gear to many of us that survived the initial assault, and our family was among the lucky ones. As Anna, Leah, David, and I swam around in our wetsuits equipped with a tank that extracted oxygen from the water, we thought all would be well—until we learned about the virus.


The aliens were obviously smart: not only smart enough to flood the Earth, but also smart enough to know that many of us would survive. That’s why they concurrently initiated a viral attack, to take out any of us that were able to make do with the flooding.


As the crowd pushed toward the first of the spaceships carrying citizens away from our doomed planet, Anna was separated from me and the kids. Somehow, I knew that was final: we’d never see her again, in this life. Thus, it was my responsibility to get four-year-old Leah and three-year-old David through the waters to our only hope of survival. And then the breathalyzers arrived.


Knowing that there was no cure for the virus, only those who were uninfected were allowed aboard the ship. Since the early stages of the virus had no apparent effects, the special breathalyzers were necessary to determine who was infected (and thus doomed to death), and who was not. I tentatively took the proffered machine and applied it to Leah.


She tested positive.


What’s worse, David and I were tested next, and both came back negative. We would be admitted to the ship and survival; Leah, heart-wrenchingly, would not.


Now, logic dictates that the smart thing would be to say my last farewells to Leah, assuring her that our temple sealing means we’d be together again in the Spirit World, and accompany David onto the ship. Leah was going to die anyway, and David needed someone to care for him. But how could I possibly leave my little girl, my precious, four-year-old daughter, all alone to suffer a long and possibly painful death? David would board the ship; that much was assured. But how could I possibly choose between caring for my son, at the expense of my daughter—especially in her hour of greatest need, when she would indubitably be terrified and alone and crying for me? The decision was impossible to make.


I only thank God that I woke up at that point, and even more so, that my two living children were both healthy and sleeping peacefully. I pray that I will never have to make such an horrific decision; I love them too much for that.

God Bless America!

We had a great time with family over the weekend. We had lots of goodies at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house, including a birthday cake for my sister, Aubrey (her birthday is the 4th of July). The kids (and some of the adults!) had fun playing frisbee, bubbles, t-ball, and soccer. At dusk we all packed up in our vehicles and headed to a local church for a fireworks display. It was rather impressive, especially for a small operation. David eventually decided he'd rather sleep on Jeff's shoulder, though I'm not sure any sleepage actually ever occurred. Leah "oohed" and "awwed" over the fireworks. She commented on how colorful they were and mentioned that she liked purple the best because it was the most colorful. ;-) We all went home that evening smelling of sunscreen and bugspray! A good time was had by all.

A Day of Firsts

This past Saturday was a day filled with firsts. We started the day with a bus ride. I had heard the day before that the city bus service offers a trolley bus tour of key points of interest for free on Saturday mornings. In true JeffAnna fashion, it started out as an adventure. First, we weren't sure we were going to make it on time. We did, thankfully, arrive with 5 or so minutes to spare, but my Punctuality Senses were definitely tingling. About 10 minutes later I started getting a little nervous that I'd read the pickup time wrong. We were 5 minutes past the appointed time, and there was still no bus. :-/ Thankfully, someone pointed us in the right direction. It turned out the bus was picking up passengers on the next block because of road closures for another event later in the day. So, we all boarded the bus for David and Leah's first bus ride! We didn't get to hear much of what the tour guide was saying because the bus was so loud and he didn't have a microphone, but we all enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

The bus dropped us off for our next "first." This was the first time this season that we went to the Farmer's Market. We had a nice leisurely walk as we perused the vendors' offerings. We couldn't pass up some fresh apple turnovers or cashew brittle! Jeff picked up some homemade summer sausage (one of his favorites) as a sort of Father's Day gift from Anna. It felt nice to be out in the fresh air.

Next, we took the kids to the local university Memorial Union. Along the way, they enjoyed another first—a very echoey walk through the underground tunnels from the parking garage to the Union. By "echoey" I mean that David and Leah took turns saying "echo!" to see just how much echo there was down there. Just as we were entering the Union, Jeff had an idea for another first later in the day. The Union has a bowling alley in it, and the kids had never been bowling before. ;-)

We walked around the Union for a few minutes taking note of what had changed (which was a decent amount!) since the last time Jeff and I had been there. We settled on a little shop we were somewhat familiar with for lunch. As we dined on our hamburgers and chicken fingers, I realized that none of had socks on. Why was this important? Well, we were pretty sure we'd have to have socks to wear those attractive bowling shoes. :-P

We had a big decision to make: Drive all the way home and get our own socks or drive to the local Wal-Mart to buy some new socks. It was a tough decision, but in the end, we decided to drive home for our own socks. We figured that way we could check at home for any coupons and call around to the various bowling alleys around town for the best deal.

We did get a pretty good deal for the bowling in the end, so all was good. On the way in, however, Leah announced that she hated bowling and didn't want to go. This is the way of the four-year-old. Almost daily we hear how she dislikes this or that thing that she's never tried. We gently remind her that she couldn't possibly know if she likes this thing or that thing because she's never tried! Anyway, it turns out she LOVES bowling. We had the place to ourselves, which made me feel a lot better since I S-T-I-N-K at bowling and get easily embarrassed about it. Leah even beat me once. After two games of bowling, the kids were more than ready for a rest and so were mommy and daddy.

We really enjoyed all the firsts. That is one of the fun things about being a parent: getting to see something for the first time again through your child's eyes.

Adventures in Garage Sale-ing

What's crazier than trying to run a garage sale with two preschoolers? Not much! LOL!

Seriously, we did have a good time doing our garage sale last Friday and Saturday, but I do think I earned a badge in Heat & Humidity Survival and Leah earned her badge in Young Sales-Laydship with the lemonade (and cookie and freezer pop) stand. David earned new pins for a badge he already earned long ago: New and Creative Ways to Make Your Mother's Heart Stop. This mostly had to do with him messing with things he had no business messing with and doing all he could to make sure said item made it almost into the road with him on it/in it. That's David!

Little kids amaze me in their ability to get excited about just about anything. The kids were thrilled to do their lemonade stand, including all of the steps to get it set up and going (they're good cookie baggers). Several people asked them what they were going to spend their money on. This question was generally met with a "deer in the headlights" stare. I'm not sure it had ever occurred to them that they'd get anything out of the stand beyond the joy of serving their customers.

As I mentioned above, Leah was quite the little sales lady. She had no qualms about asking our customers if they would like any cookies or lemonade. After a while, however, she got a little discouraged at hearing so many "no, thanks" (I was a little surprised so many people could resist my sweetheart….), so she got a little too aggressive in her approach for my liking. It was totally cute, but I chose to use it as a lesson in social skills. She took to following people down the driveway and asking if they were sure that they didn't want any lemonade. I'm sure people recognized that she's 4-and-a-half and cut her some slack for that, but I don't want to raise an obnoxious, pushy person, so I gently stepped in. I told her it was fine to ask people once if they'd like anything from the stand, but she needed to wait until they were at least in the vicinity of the stand to ask. Being the intelligent child that she is, she caught on right away. She didn't return to sweetly asking people if they'd like something, though. She took a more manipulative approach; when anyone cared to glance at her or came close to the stand, she'd make sure she said loudly enough to be heard, "Boy, that lemonade sure looks good" or "Man, it's hot out here. I'm thirsty!" or "Cookies are a good treat on a hot day." I couldn't help but giggle. I figured she'd had enough of a social lesson for the day, so I let it slide.

In the end, we did make a little money, and we got rid of some things that have been sitting around for a while, including our air hockey table. We were thrilled to sell it to some friends from church since we know their grandsons will really enjoy playing with it. As I like to tell everyone, it had been relegated to a laundry folding table here. :-/ I cried like a baby after a couple of ladies (one obviously in the third trimester of her pregnancy) bought the kids' Intellitainer (kind of like an exersaucer). I just had to keep reminding myself that we weren't getting rid of it because there will be no more babies in our home. The kids had just worn out the electronic part of it, and it was silly to keep it if we could have something just as good that would take up less space. *sigh*

The weekend would not have been complete if we hadn't taken some time to peruse the other garage sales in the neighborhood. As such, I'm not sure we didn't actually increase the number of toys in our home, but maybe the kids will at least play more with the items they acquired than they did with the things we passed on to someone else. ;-)

Grandma and Pop

I finally have my laptop back, so I'll be playing a little catch up!

Grandma and Pop (Jeff's parents) drove out to spend a few days with us on Monday May 17th. As usual, their visit was packed with lots of fun stuff!

We went out for pizza and Monkey Joe's Monday evening. Leah, in typical fashion, made a friend while we were at Monkey Joe's. However, I'm not sure the friend considered herself Leah's friend. It wasn't clear from my vantage point whether the girl was trying to run away from Leah or if she was leading Leah to the different jumps a little too quickly. ;-) Either way, Leah was happy.

Tuesday we spent most of the day at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. That day was especially fun because Jeff took the day off to go with us. We ate our sack lunches in the museum cafeteria. That was followed by the obligatory cotton candy. We spent some time at the Etch-a-Sketch, Barbie, and Bob the Builder exhibits. We also rode on the vintage carousel and spent some time in the playscape (a cool play area with a water table area, a sand table area, and other types of play areas). We finished up the adventure with some Dairy Queen on the way home.

Wednesday we went to our local zoo. They have several new exhibits this year, so Leah and David wanted to show the new animals to Grandma and Pop. We got to see a Wallaby Joey stick his little head out of his mother's pouch. The kids also loved crawling through the tunnel under the river otter exhibit and watching the otters swim around. David was especially intrigued by the prairie dogs digging a new hole for their home. Pop loved watching the bald eagles. Jeff didn't get to spend this trip with us, so we still need to go as a family to show him the new exhibits. The kids had a great time playing at the nearby playground after we'd covered all of the zoo exhibits. We finished up the day with a trip to one of our favorite restaurants and some games at Chuck E Cheese's. Leah and David had their favorite meal: pancakes and bacon. Everyone is always amazed at how they gobble up every, single bite! The final treat of the day was a trip to Cold Stone Creamery.

Thursday was Grandma and Pop's last day with us. They took the kids "out" to breakfast at their hotel's fabulous breakfast buffet. Jeff and I took the opportunity to go out for breakfast just as the two of us. It was a nice break from routine, but I did find myself wondering how the kids were doing, etc. It turns out they did a great job of stuffing themselves. ;-)

We're all looking forward to Grandma and Pop's next visit in early July. I'm sure we'll have plenty of adventures then as well. Thankfully, we have time for our sleep schedules and waistlines to recover before then. ;-)

I will post photos as soon as a) I figure out how to get them from the camera into the computer myself, or b) Jeff has/takes the time to do it for me. :-p

Recent Quotables

David and Leah say something hilarious (at least in our opinion) almost daily. Here are some of their recent quotables.

David (as seen at right): “I’m an armadillo!”

David: “The Holy Ghost isn't in the car.” (This was sung over and over on our way to an appointment)

Leah: “I can only do big jumps on Wednesdays.”

Leah: “I can only open the bathroom door by myself once a day.”

David: “Leah, there's a barking spider on you!” (This was quickly followed by sound effects, and, no, not the kind you're thinking of. Apparently, barking spiders say “Eeeeeeeeee, bark, bark!”)

David: “Jesus put a lollipop in my throat and it went down the drain. Now it's in my belly.” (his explanation for what made him choke)

Leah: “Uh-oh! It looks like the Holy Ghost is playing on our swings again.” (the wind was blowing them around)

David: “Mr. Birdfeather!” (This was the one and only peep we heard from him on the baby monitor all evening. It was spoken in a British accent, and accents always make things funnier!)

Leah: “I'm only doing the windows, the floor, and the roof!” (said while trying to stall bedtime and convince daddy to help her build a Lego house)

Leah: “I hope my doll's hair doesn't look too dorky.”

Mother's Day

I feel blessed every day to be a mother, but it was nice to have a specific reason to celebrate today. The absolute highlight of the day was getting to hear Leah sing in church today. I was afraid she was going to miss the opportunity because she announced that she needed to go to the potty right before (or at least what we thought was right before) the children were supposed to go up for the performance. Thankfully, she said she could wait for a little bit. I normally don't make her wait, but there were clues that she was just bored and trying to get out into the hallway. ;-)

The kids first sang "Mother, I Love You" in Spanish. I know her Spanish wasn't perfect, but Leah sang out loud and strong, without hesitation. The sincere look on her face is one of the most precious things I've ever seen. The children moved on to "Mother, I Love You" in English. Leah didn't miss a beat. The children finished up with "A Child's Prayer." For those unfamiliar with the song, it has two parts. The first part serves as the first verse; the second part serves as the second verse; for the third verse, both parts are sung together (the children's choir split in two groups to do this). This type of song can be challenging for children, but Leah held her own. I could tell she was very focused on singing her part just right. It brought me to tears. I just couldn't believe that I am the mother to such a precious, talented little girl! After the song finished, a lady from two pews back said loud enough for us to hear, "Anna, you have a star there!" I couldn't do anything but giggle at that point because I am so happy to be Leah's mom.

In other Mother's Day news, the kids made me some lovely gifts. One was a flower with a tootsie pop in the middle of it and Leah's little handprint attached to it. Leah informed me that the flower and the handprint were for me, but the candy was for her! :-P David thought the tissue paper flower arrangement he made for me in nursery was a toy for him, so we had a bit of a tantrum on our hands when I explained it wasn't a toy at all. I guess we need to have a little lesson on sacrifice and giving cheerfully! ;-)

Breakfast of Champions

Scene: the Drake family kitchen, about 7:00 this morning. Leah and David have run ahead of me and by the time I get there, I find David having grabbed a box of crackers and shoving his hand into the box. I quickly grab the box from him, returning the two or three crackers to the box. (Yeah, I know, unsanitary. It’s not like anyone else is going to be eating them.) ;-)

I inform David that we will not be having crackers for breakfast; he screams. I ignore him and turn to Leah. The following conversation ensues:

Daddy: “Leah, what do you want for breakfast?”

Leah: “Crackers!”

Daddy: “No, Leah. I just told David that we don’t have crackers with breakfast.”

Leah: “But I want crackers!”

Daddy: “No, Leah. Not for breakfast.”

Leah: “Can I have crackers for lunch?”

Daddy: “If you would like some crackers with your lunch, I’m okay with that if Mommy is. Mommy, is that okay?”

Mommy (looking up from the computer): “What?”

Daddy: “Leah can have crackers with her lunch?”

Mommy: “Yes, with her lunch.”

Daddy: “Okay, thanks, Mommy. So, Leah, you may have some crackers with your lunch. Now what do you want for breakfast?”

Leah: “Oatmeal!”

Daddy: “Okay. David, what do you want for breakfast?”

David: “Lunch!”


(((sigh)))

Family Activities

I love it that the kids love being involved in our family activities. They cheer when they realize it's Monday, and they get to participate in Family Home Evening. Usually, they get to pick the songs ("Follow the Prophet" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" are some favorites) and say the prayers. Leah has even taught the lesson a couple of times (imagine a 4-year-old trying to teach about the Resurrection; it was quite touching, but also quite humorous!). They love to help plant and water the flowers and vegetable garden. David especially loves to help mommy make dinner, and sometimes pulls a few extra ingredients out of the pantry. ;-) It makes me so happy that they love being together as a family. I hope this love runs deep so that it extends later into their childhood and teen years. A girl can dream.
;-)

Anna's Birthday

All four of us had a great time on my birthday. We spent most of the day at Turkey Run State Park, which included a gourmet picnic lunch and hiking. We, of course, had to get Dairy Queen on the way home. We also tried to go to the local zoo, only to be disappointed when we walked through the gates a minute after it closed. Apparently, their evening hours don't start until after Memorial Day. The kids had a great time playing at the huge playground at the park instead. We finished up the day with a delicious meal at Cracker Barrel. I love spending time with my three favorite people!

I Make This Look Good

So David, as some of our more astute readers may remember, has an asthma-like condition that has been described as “allergy-induced asthma” (which is basically what I had as a child, too). The point is that if the poor little guy gets sick at all, it gets into his chest and stays there like an annoying relative, which then requires him to take daily doses of Albuterol and Pulmicort (both asthma medications) via a nebulizer, until the symptoms go away.

Last night, our little man was receiving his treatment and decided to make a fashion statement. Enjoy the pic, and check out my Facebook page for more.

One Year Ago Today

A year ago today, we buried our sweet baby boy Daniel. We spent Friday (his first birthday) celebrating his life by taking a mini-vacation to Louisville, where Anna and I attended the temple on Saturday while members of the local FSA chapter provided babysitting.

So much has happened in the past year—much of it good, but all of it tinged by Daniel’s absence. We take great comfort in the teaching of President Joseph Smith, Jr.:

Children … must rise just as they died; we can there hail our lovely infants with the same glory—the same loveliness in the celestial glory” (History of the Church 6:366).

However, we know not whether Daniel’s spirit had yet staked its eternal claim on the tiny body he seems to have inhabited. Thus, we can only wait to see whether he will be returned to us in this life (which is currently our preference, ignorant though it may be).

If he is to be returned to us in mortality, we also wonder how this will happen: will he grow in Anna’s womb, as numerous Priesthood blessings seem to have attested, or will he come to us through another? And either way, our impatient humanity begs the question of “When?”

Regardless of how it all turns out, it suffices to say that even after a year, our beloved baby boy is severely missed. We love you, Daniel, and we cannot wait to see you again. :-*

Wise Beyond Her Years

I am so proud of my daughter.

Last night, the kids were watching Super Why! while I was cleaning up in the kitchen. For those that have never seen this PBS show, it’s actually pretty cool: a computer-generated little boy name Whyatt hooks up with three of his friends from Storybook Village to solve a problem one of them is having. The foursome become the Super Readers, and they make their way into a book wherein they learn how someone else solved a similar problem. Neat concept, really.

So anyway, in last night’s episode, the problem they were having was that Wolfie—a character I’ve never seen before, but what do I know?—erased the scoreboard, right in the middle of the kids’ kickball game. This obviously constituted a major emergency, since no one could remember what the score was. (It was 3-1, by the way; our heroes were winning.) ;-)

True to form, Whyatt immediately called upon the Super Readers to figure out what to do, which was interesting, since the winning team consisted of—you guessed it!—the three kids and one pig that constitute the Super Readers’ secret identities. I smiled and muttered under my breath, “Guess you’re just gonna forfeit that game anyway, huh?”

A few minutes pass; I’m still cleaning in the kitchen, maybe half–paying attention to the show. All of a sudden, Leah gasps. Without any prompting from the show whatsoever—it really had nothing to do with what was going on in the on-screen book, at that point—she says, “I hope the game’s not over before they all get back!”

That’s my girl. :-)

Love Unfeigned

I know we don’t do good deeds so that we can go around flaunting it, but I’m just so proud of my kids that I think this one just has to be mentioned.

As I’m sure you all know, there was a major earthquake in Haiti, about two weeks ago. (If you’ve missed this, you must have been hiding under a rock somewhere.) Thousands, perhaps millions of people have been giving their time and money to help the survivors in this already impoverished nation to recover from the immeasurable devastation.

As with most disasters, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was among the first on the ground, sending out not only medical teams but hundreds of tons of food and other supplies. But in the midst of such total destruction, there’s always more needs than can reasonably met, so the call has gone out for more.

Anna and I had been planning to make a donation anyway, but my darling wife saw this as an opportunity to help our children. When she told them what was happening (in terms a four- and almost-three–year old can understand), they immediately caught the vision and volunteered to share some money from their own piggy banks, to help others so desperately in need. This morning, before Church, I helped them each remove a dollar from their piggy bank, which they excitedly placed in separate envelopes (each with the appropriate offerings form) and gave to the bishop.

And again Alma commanded that the people of the church should impart of their substance, every one according to that which he had; if he have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but little should be required; and to him that had not should be given.

And thus they should impart of their substance of their own free will and good desires towards God, … yea, and to every needy, naked soul (Mosiah 18:27-28).

Thank you, Leah and David. I love you, and I’m so proud of you!