May 21, 2006

Hello Everyone,
I'm writing from the sick house again, unfortunately... Poor Joseph has been throwing up literally all day. He hasn't been able to keep anything down yet, not even water. I'm so thankful this is today, though, and not yesterday. He would have been so incredibly disappointed to miss his preschool graduation.

Their graduation was SO cute, by the way. I know there are lots of feelings about celebrating "graduations" like for pre-school, but honestly it was really cute. And I don't have a problem with teaching little children to be proud of academic acheivements, even on the level of preschool.

The graduation was held at a Baptist church across the street from their school. All the little kids marched in carrying American flags and singing "Proud to be an American." The graduation included the kids from the Cooper City Lil' Rascals as well as the Weston school, so there were probably 70-80 kids total (2 classes from each school). Each school then had a little performance with a couple of songs and dances. Brigham and Joseph were in a production of "Mamba #5" with different, cute words. Then it was the other school's turn, then an intermission, and finally marching across for "diplomas." Brigham was so funny, he was one of the first across, and he just skipped across over to his teacher, cute as anything. Joseph was towards the end and he was very solemn and serious. Then after the other school presented diplomas, it was time for the "finale," and the kids sang a very nice version of Josh Grobin's "You Raise Me Up." And that was it! Afterwards we met the kids in their caps and gowns in the back for pictures and to pick up their graduation certificates. Brigham and Joseph both wanted to know if I could hear them sing. Well, not exactly over 80 other kids, but they were definitely singing! I could see their mouths moving for every word.

After we managed to get out of the parking lot we went out to eat for a late lunch (it was like 2:30 by this time) at La Azteca (or is it El Azteca?), a Mexican restaurant in Davie. The boys were perfectly behaved and it was a delicious lunch. Joseph and Mosey and Ben fell asleep on the way home and napped all the way until about 8:00 PM, right about when I got Brigham in bed. As a result, you can imagine how late Joseph and Mosey were up! Joseph was up until past 2:30 AM, actually, which I believe accounts quite a bit for his sickness today. Mosey was quite snickerdoodly last night, too, giving Ben quite the run for his money in going to sleep. Ben had to barricade the bedroom door with a dresser to keep him from running out over and over again.

Mosey sort of continued his rampage this morning, as well. Ben let me sleep all morning, and Joseph was throwing up, so Mosey had the run of the house. And it shows. Ah well, tomorrow it will get cleaned up again.

So, what am I going to do with this newly 2-1/2 year old of mine?? One thing is for sure, he MUST start going to bed by himself (i.e. not falling asleep with mom and dad). Yes, I know, this has been an ongoing theme for more than a year now. The great get-Mosey-to-sleep project that never seems to get done. But I'm totally creating a monster here, and I need to nip it in the bud. I think my goal will be to get him in a good bedtime routine by the time we go on our California/Utah trip at the end of June. He is definitely at the point where he is needing boundaries and rules, so now is a good time to get this started.

On Friday, Mosey was actually a very good boy most of the day. He did errands with me in the morning (Weight Watchers meeting, lab for my blood tests, post office, Home Depot), and was very well behaved. At the lab, actually, he charmed everyone there with his peals of laughter when I pulled out this cheap little Chuck E. Cheese flip toy thing from my purse to entertain him. He just laughed and laughed every time I flipped the thing in the air, it was really pretty funny. The boys had school late that day, until 1:00, for their final graduation practice. After we picked them up, it occurred to me I had to get them black shoes and another pair of black dress pants for their graduation. The boys have no proper church shoes anyway, so it was a good excuse to get them some. We went to Target and got some great shoes on sale, but NO black pants for boys there! So we went across the parking lot to the mall and into JC Penney's to search from some black dress pants. I have one pair for the boys, but needed another. Managed to find a very nice shirt/tie/vest/pants set for $15. When we got back to the car I told the boys they could each have a pouch drink (purchased at Target) once they were buckled in their seats. Well, no sooner had I given Mosey his, that he started squeezing the dickens out of it, of course spraying juice EVERYWHERE! The boys started squealing (it was getting everywhere, really), and I turned around and shouted at Mosey to stop. Well, he just got this really devilish little look on his face and started squeezing it even harder. I grabbed his hand, but couldnt' make him let go. Finally, at my wit's end, I smacked his arm really hard, and wrenched the drink away from him. Thank goodness I had plenty of wipes in the car, and that it was the reduced sugar pouch drinks. But oh my goodness! Where did he think of that?? What made him do that?? Anyway, he was very upset that I took his drink away, and howled for quite a while until he fell asleep in his carseat. I felt bad for smacking him, that is the first time I've done that with him... No more pouch drinks in the car, I guess.

Friday night was a ward activity which turned out really nice. It was an international night, with tables set up by families in our ward from different countries. There were tables set up from Holland, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Mexico, Hawaii, Florida, and a couple others I think. There was food from all these countries and several families performed songs/dances from their countries. It was very cool. Ben and I played a few songs on the piano/violin from our English/pioneer heritage including Come Come Ye Saints (English folk tune) and a couple others. There was a pinata for the kids and all in all a lot of sugar was consumed such that none of our boys fell asleep on the way home! Oh well. It was pretty quick work getting them to bed once we were home.

So, that is my VERY long account of our weekend. Sorry, not sure how that got so long.
I hope you all have a good Monday.
Benjamin, I hope everything went really well today, I'm sure it did. I hope you will forward me a copy of your talk.
Rachel, it was so great talking to you last night! I miss you so much.
Rosalynde, I hope you are not getting sicker... Or if you are, please let it spare the rest of your family!
Nikki, any news on the baby front yet? I'm waiting for that phone call!