April 13, 2007

Hello Everyone,
Well, my vacation is over. It really was a vacation to have my family here-- my mom did all the cleaning up and put the big boys to bed every night. It was fabulous. I'll briefly run down what we did for the week, just for history's sake.

On Tuesday (I think that's where I left off?), the big boys went to school, and then later on I took Mama, Abe, Christian, and Eva to the Inner Space Caves (stopping at the Candle factory before our cave tour). We had a much better tour guide this time than last, and that made it more enjoyable for me. He was quite knowledgable and explained a lot better how soda straws form, why formations stop growing if you touch them, how the animals died in the sink holes, etc. Christian was feeling pretty yucky that day, but he was a trouper and made it through the tour.

On Wednesday it was finally sunny and after taking the boys to school I got ready for my doctor's appointment. The scoop on that is that I'm doing great! My reflexes are soooo much better, my gait is better, the blind spot in my eye has cleared up, so the doctor is really pleased at how well I responded to the treatment. He says I can do that treatment up to two times per year if I need it, which is really nice. I don't have to worry as much if I get another bad flareup, because I do respond well to the treatment. I guess the jury's still out on the recurring-remitting vs. primary-progressive, but either way my course of treatment would be the same at this point, and the doctor seems optimistic.

After my doctor's appointment I took the family (sans my dad, he had to go back to CA on Tuesday morning) down to the Capitol building, since only Abe had seen it, and then on a little driving tour of Austin. We drove through some of the downtown (including down 6th St.), then down MoPac to the Capital of TX Hwy, and then north all the way to where it meets 183. Then we backtracked and went back to 2222 and went up the hill and then over to the Oasis for lunch. It was a gorgeous day and the food was good, if a little pricey. The view over Lake Travis was beautiful. All the rain has raised the level of the lake quite a bit, and only the very tops of a couple of islands are visible anymore. After getting the boys from school, my mom took them to the park and I stayed home and rested. Paradise!

Thursday I took the family to Mt. Bonnell and we did the little hike along the cliff, admiring the views. Mosey has learned the joys of being swung by two people holding his hands on either side of him, and he pretty much required that he be swung continuously. :-) Thanks a lot Christian and Eva!! j/k. Abe did some amazing tricks sliding down the railings and scaring mama and me and setting a BAD example for Mosey!

Then we went down to Barton Springs and wandered around there for a while (Mosey and I played at the park while Mama and the others walked along the river). There were tons of school kids there on a field trip and it was pretty fun to watch Mosey interact with them. He is not shy in the least, and not at all intimidated by the much bigger, older kids. He got right in there and played amidst the other children. He wasn't too happy about getting back in the car, but I really wanted to take my family to Rudy's before they had to go. Rudy's was great, as usual, and I discovered that their Banana Pudding is TO DIE FOR. Seriously, it's that good.

Then it was back to pick up the boys from school, and then down to the airport. I hate goodbyes. But it was a wonderful visit and I can look forward to going out to CA in just a couple of months or so.

So, that is the travelogue.

Today was a bit of a let-down, just because I was having such a good time having my family here. But it was alright.

Mosey has been practicing being three recently. A couple of days ago he was sitting on the breakfast bar as he loves to do, and eating straight out of the cinnamon sugar bowl. I told him to stop eating the sugar and he said, "What should I do then, Mom?" As if there was NOTHING at all to do in the house EXCEPT eat sugar, and if I didn't let him do that, then what WOULD he be able to do?? LOL...

Then last night I was trying to get Brigham and Joseph to sleep, reading them stories, etc., and Mosey was supposed to be reading stories with Ben. But he decided he wanted me to read him stories instead. So he came into the boys' room and started jumping around and messing up Joseph's "underground city" (have I told you about this? He has a bunch of stuff arranged under his bed-- his treasure box, books, stuffed animals, boxes, etc., and it is his "underground city." He has tucked blankets between his mattresses so they hang down just so, and he loves to look down there and work on it, and gets VERY mad when anyone touches it or messes it up), so Ben came in and carried him away and I locked the door. Mosey of course marched right back down the hall and proceeded to pound on the door and cry LOUDLY for probably about 25 minutes or so until I finished up reading with Brigham and Joseph. Ugh. Then he was perfectly happy and I read him his stories and he went to sleep finally after talking to himself and to me for about 20 minutes. Mosey is a talker, talker, talker. I'm trying to even remember what he was talking about last night, but it was pretty much incessant for 20 minutes. Oh yeah, he was talking about our old house vs. new house. He's still trying to get his mind around the idea that we have an old house, that we are moved and in a new house. He talks about the old house a lot. Yesterday I was practicing subtraction with Joseph so I made up a story problem-- say our old house had 14 windows and a bad boy comes and breaks 6 of them. How many windows will be left? Well, I guess Mosey didn't understand that this was a made up story, so he was talking a lot about the broken windows and the bad boy, and I tried to explain that I was just telling a story, but I'm not quite sure he got it. :-)

Oh yeah, one other really funny thing about Mosey. He loves the Geico gecko, and whenever we see a billboard or a commercial with the gecko, he is sure to point it out. So last night I was reading him a book about Chameleons, and I guess he got thinking about Geckos (somewhat similar I suppose), and he asked me, "Mom, do geckos talk?" So I told him, no geckos do not talk, Mosey. And then he says, "But the gecko on the TV can talk," so I tried to explain to him that the gecko on TV was just pretend but that real geckos don't talk. We discussed this point for a while and finally he says, "Pretend geckos can talk, mom, and real geckos cannot talk." Yes! We'll see if that sticks. I don't think three year olds are that good at distinguishing TV from reality, somehow!

So anyway, back to Mosey being three. We went to Target today, and while there, he saw a movie that we actually have at home, and REALLLLY wanted to buy it. So at first I tried the distraction strategy. I let him hold the movie and put it in the cart, and then when he wasn't looking, I put it back on the shelf. But several minutes later, in a different part of the store, he asks, "Where is my animal movie?" I try to say, maybe it's underneath our other things, but Mosey is too wise for that ruse, and he quickly looked through everything in the cart (he was riding in the back of the cart) and informed me it wasn't there. We had gone to the restroom so Mosey decided that it must have been left in the restroom. Well, I could tell he wasn't going to be distracted again, so we went back to the movie aisle, and I tried to get him to be interested in a different movie, one we don't already have! Well, not even the promise of a Blues Clues DVD, or Clifford, or the Letter Factory could tempt him. Finally I decided just to tell the truth and I explained to him we already have that movie, and it would be silly to have two of the same movie at home. We went back and forth on this matter for a while, but he was not being persuaded. Finally I took the movie from him and told him we were not going to buy that movie today because we already have it at hom. Tears erupted. I tried to soothe him, telling him that it's ok to feel bad, I know he is disappointed to not get the movie, but that he would be happy when we get home because he would see we already have the movie. I didn't succeed in soothing him. He cried throughout the rest of our Target trip, out to the car, all the way home, and once we were home I unbuckled him but he refused to get out of the car and screamed "I wanna go back to Target!!" for at least 25 more minutes. Finally I got him out of the car and sat with him kicking and screaming on the couch, with the movie he wanted actually playing, and he struggled out of my arms and ran back to the garage to get in the car again. I carried him back in, closed the car and garage doors, and finally after a few more minutes he settled down.

Then I thought I'd make him feel happier by cutting up the cantelope we've had on our counter for a couple of days. Mosey LOVES fruit of all sorts, and especially cantelope. So I cut it up, put the pieces in a big bowl, and put the bowl on the table. Then I told Mosey there was a bowl of cantelope for him on the kitchen table. He immediately got up and went into the kitchen where I assumed he was eating the cantelope. Never assume with a 3 year old. When I went back in the kitchen, I discovered he had very quietly and efficiently emptied the entire bowl of cantelope pieces into the trash can. Ugh! Three year olds!!

He had another battle of wills later in the afternoon with Brigham and Joseph. He finally accepted the fact that we did indeed have his movie at home (it was a Baby Einstein video, by the way, Neighborhood Animals), and wanted to watch it again. Brigham and Joseph wanted to watch Princess Bride. Mosey insisted that they could watch his movie first and THEN watch Princess Bride, but the big boys weren't interested in that plan. Joseph started telling Mosey that his movie was for babies, but I quickly told him to stop saying that. So then Mosey goes on and on about how Joseph thinks his movie is for babies, but it's not, "It's just a good movie, mom! Not a baby movie. A good movie." I agreed that it *was* a good movie, and *not* just for babies (remember how Eva and Christian loved Baby Einstein when we lived in La Canada the summer before the twins turned one?), but that it was still Brigham and Joseph's turn to choose a movie.

When Ben got home, I was in dire need of a break (all of this was interspersed with various fights between the big boys-- we had a long talk out on the hammock about not fighting, about how if there is fighting going on, I'm not going to care who started it, both boys will get time outs, etc..., a big fire ant incident where the boys all decided it would be a good idea to poke and throw things at this big fire ant pile in our backyard, and subsequently Mosey got bit a bunch of times again and I got really mad and yelled at them and sent the big boys inside where they started fighting again...). So I left him with the boys and went out for some retail therapy!! It did me some good, too. I went to Pier 1 and bought some baskets (huge clearance on baskets at Pier 1), then to TJ Maxx where I got some clothes and books.

So here I am! This weekend I have to get the taxes done. Why do I procrastinate to the last weekend every year? Probably because it always works and I always manage to get it done in time. We're going out to look at a few houses tomorrow, one of which actually looks pretty promising, so we'll see. Brigham has a birthday party in the afternoon, and then Brigham and Joseph have to give the talk and scripture respectively in primary on Sunday, so we'll need to prepare for that. Not as busy as some of you out there, but still pretty busy for me!

Oh yeah, and happy Friday the 13th to everyone!



*****WARNING***** Lots of Mosey pictures below!! I've been camera-happy lately I guess!

Beautiful view of the Colorado River from Mt. Bonnell.

I told Mosey to smile, and this is what I got.

I love this little guy, he is the sweetest ever! When he's not being three, that is.

One of many faces Mosey can pull.

And another...

And another!

Resting in the sun at the bottom of the steps. Actually, I made him sit there on his way up the steps to try and copy Abe who was doing daredevil tricks down the railing.

Good lookin' family overlooking the river.

That's downtown Austin in the distance. You could just barely see the top of the dome of the state capitol.

Abe and his daredevil tricks. Ok, I admit I did a little photoshop magic to make this look a little more precarious than it actually was. :-)

This actually was a little dangerous, and we made Abe stop after a few runs down, since I think a broken bone was pretty much just waiting to happen around there.

Eva philosophizing on the Philosopher's Rock at Barton Springs.

Mosey philosophizing.

Mosey engrossed in conversation with the statue. Like I said, he's a talker!




Mosey on the cool fire truck at the Barton Springs park.

Silly Mosey.

Did I mention Mosey is silly?

Ahh, but who can resist those big blue eyes?

Mama, Abe, Eva, and Christian at Rudy's. I like this mural. Very Texan. So Rachel, I guess this about sums up my opinion about the merits of being vegetarian!! LOL