June 9, 2007

Ok, so you've seen a bunch of Naomi's engagement pictures. If you want to see ALL of them (like 60-something I think), you can go to my photosite page.

I've been pretty busy the last few days. Young Women stuff, Naomi's pictures, some drawings I'm working on, and keeping the boys occupied.

Wednesday night I had mutual and the boys were very uncooperative for Ben and didn't go to bed until after I got home (and I went grocery shopping after mutual), so it was about 10:30 before they were in bed. And their normal bedtime is 7:00, so that was pretty darn late. As a result Thursday was... not the best day. Lots of whining and fighting and generally being very uncooperative. And I was up even later Thursday night so I was tired and irritable too which did not improve the situation. Anyway that night I had to go to Enrichment and present on "Loving life and learning" and I was feeling especially non-spiritual and especially not-loving life at the moment. So as I was handing the boys off to Ben I said exasperatedly that the boys had had a *really* bad day. Brigham immediately said, "No, mom, we didn't have a bad day, YOU had a bad day!" I just had to laugh at that, because he was right. But enrichment was nice and Friday was a better day.

Friday we went to the YMCA outdoor pool. It was so nice! It is free to get in, has one of those zero entrances where the water comes right up to the ground level like a shore line. It had 3 different water slides into the deeper end (deepest part is only like 4 feet), and 5 different fountains in the shallow side. The boys had a really good time, and Mosey didn't hang on to me for dear life like he did a year ago, so I have some hope for swimming lessons which start on Tuesday.

Friday was also the first day we could officially take possession of our new house, as the previous owners rented back from us for a couple of weeks. So we went there last night and the boys and Ben went swimming in the backyard. I didn't have my swimsuit with me so I didn't go, and went inside quickly as I was getting bit up by mosquitoes. We will really have to come up with some sort of mosquito solution because they were SO BAD. Man I hate mosquitoes. Today I think we might move our hammock and trampoline to the new house so we can go hang out there in the afternoons before we officially move in. I'm going to be putting in hardwood in the master bedroom, probably going to buy the wood today. I'm going to attempt to do it myself, I don't think it should be too hard, and it is only one room, so we will see. It is $2.50/sq ft to get it installed, so I'd really like to do it myself.

Last night I was reading Mosey his alphabet book and we got to the L is for Lemon part, and I asked him, "What do you do with lemons?" thinking he would say, "Make lemonade." But instead he yelled, "Lemons are for throwing in the pool!!" I totally cracked up at that. For those who don't get the humor, my parents have a rather large lemon tree right by their pool, and whenever we go there it is a continual battle to get the grandkids to stop throwing lemons into the pool. Apparently Mosey was completely oblivious to all our efforts to keep lemons out of the water...

Ok, that's it for today. I'll leave you with the drawings I've been working on. They're not entirely finished, but nearly there.

June 9, 2006

Hello Everyone,
Why is it that small children have a compulsion to smear around anything that spills? Have you noticed that? Before the age of about 4, and even sometimes after that, if a little kid spills juice on the table, he or she MUST smear it around to make as big a mess as possible. Or if something spills or drops on the ground, the child must step on it!!
I had this experience a few times today with Mosey. He was eating a popsicle (I'm NOT buying any more, he just makes way too much of a mess), and every time a drip spilled on the table, he HAD to smear it around. And then when he was just about done with it, the last chunk fell of the stick and onto the floor, and he stepped on it before I could get him to stop. Oh well...
It wasn't a stellar potty day for him either, but it wasn't really his fault. I don't think he yet recognizes when he has to go until he REALLY HAS TO GO RIGHT THIS SECOND. So he had one accident at Butterfly World (I meant to take him to the bathroom right when we got there but I forgot), and then later on at home, he came up to me saying, "Pee, pee!" in a sort of desperate way, with pee already dripping down his leg. I rushed him to the bathroom, and I think he did manage to hold most of it in. I need to set some sort of alarm or something to I remember to take him on a regular basis.
Today we went to the Allred's pool in the morning, and then home to eat lunch, and then went to Butterfly World. Got home around 4:30, and that was our day. I'm working on another drawing for someone else who wants it for Father's Day, so I really need to have most of it done over the weekend. I've been working on that pretty much since I got home, with breaks for making and eating dinner and getting the kids in bed. I hope I can find time to get it done this weekend. The boys have 2 birthday parties, though, so it will be busy.
Brigham and Joseph and I had an interesting conversation on the way home from Butterfly World. A couple of weeks ago we read about the War in Heaven from our Scripture Stories book, and we talked about Satan and what his plan was, and how he wants us to choose the wrong now. I told them that whenever they got thoughts of doing bad things, that was probably Satan tempting them. Well, I guess this has been worrying Brigham because today on the way home he said to me, "Sometimes I think about doing bad things, but I don't think it is Satan telling me to." I told him that it's probably not Satan if it is just a passing thought, but if you start thinking a lot about doing bad things and you really want to do bad things, then it probably is Satan. He then said, "Well everyone makes mistakes, right?" So then I had to explain about the difference between making a mistake and consciously choosing wrong. Then Joseph asked if Jesus ever tempts you. Wow what a question! I told him that Jesus only helps us to do GOOD things, he would never tempt us to choose wrong. I told them that Satan even tried to tempt Jesus, but Jesus didn't listen to him. Brigham repeated what I had told them a few weeks ago, "If Satan is trying to tempt me I will just tell him to GO AWAY!" And Joseph said, "Also you should try to think about something good."
Anyway, it was an interesting theological discussion to have with a couple of 4 year olds. I'm a little uncertain because at 4 years old they are clearly not yet fully responsible for their actions. They haven't mastered impulse control (heck, even I haven't), and certainly aren't mature enough to be fully aware of the difference between right and wrong in any given situation. So I don't want them to necessarily think that if they do something bad at 4 or 5 or 6 years old even, that they are following Satan and are turning into bad guys. But I do want them to work towards knowing right from wrong and to practice making good choices, and have it be important to them to be good. Anyway, I think I'll have to talk with them about this more because I dont' want them to get overactive guilt complexes at such a young age!!
That's it for tonight. Have a good Friday everyone.