Graduation celebration

My brother-in-law Uchenna graduated from BYU with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering this weekend. Much of the family showed up to congratulate and celebrate. Including the family here in Utah, my sisters from California came with their families, and my Mom. I'm sure everyone else was here in thought.

Thursday night 34 of us met at the Smalley's home for dinner. It was the epitome of "organized chaos." The evening was very fun and exciting.

After Dominic came home from work on Friday night, we made the trek down to Orem for the reception. It was the first time I met Uchenna's parents, and they seemed very pleased and proud of their son. But then, who wouldn't be?

We arrived home just in time for Dominic to get to bed (he has to wake up at 5 am on Saturdays.) The time was too short. I don't know when I'll see everyone again, especially Jen and Uchenna, who moved to Oklahoma. The distance between us makes me more grateful for telephones and email.

Mini vacation

Before I begin, I just want to mention that Elisa took 2 steps to Sammy last night and still refuses to walk to me. (sigh)

Last week we took a day trip to Salt Lake City. We forgot how to get to the zoo, so instead we went to Liberty Park and fed 2 loaves of bread to the ducks, geese and seagulls. Dominic was able to get some geese and ducks to eat out of his hand. We had lunch at the cafe, where our kids amused everyone. Sammy told people his name is Clever Me. Why? I don't know. Probably the same reason he used to tell people he was Bug Bug Green Bean.

Unfortunately we had to drop off Dominic at work. So I took the children to the Bountiful temple and explained that Daddy and I were married there. The weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed playing on the grass.

We went to see a movie, and everyone (but me) fell asleep on the drive over. We arrived early enough to give them a half hour nap. We watched "Nim's Island," and I enjoyed it. The boys liked it, too, but the hurricane scenes scared Benjamin.

Sammy wanted to eat dinner at Applebee's to see the talking apple, like in the commercials. There were a lot of apples but none talked. I'm going to brag: we all had enough to eat and the bill, plus tip, came to $15. Yeah, I know how to order.

We spent the rest of the evening at the mall. I finally found the play place in an obvious spot, after walking all over the mall. In my defense I had another mall layout in mind and kept missing it.

Then we picked up Dominic from work and met a couple of his co-workers. One of them was trying to be funny and sat in our car, saying "Ok, let's go." Benjamin was too tired and cried a lot. She felt bad and kept apologizing for traumatizing him.

Elisa is walking!

Yesterday she started walking! Lisy was free-standing in the living room. Dominic went over to her and encouraged her to walk to him. She did. 3 whole steps. Dominic picked her up and hugged her, and she smiled really big. When I tried to get her to walk to me a few minutes later, she just fell in my direction.

This morning the kids were supposedly getting dressed but were actually wrestling. Elisa was right in there with the boys, climbing over them and laughing.

She is also sort of talking. There have been several times when she said "Mama," but usually when she's complaining. She also says "Dada," usually when she's happy and playing. So she might just be babbling.

Movie review: Bride and Prejudice. On the recommendation of my sister Emily, I rented this movie and loved it! Dominic likes the LDS version better, though. It's amazing how Jane Austin's story is timeless and universal. The boys were confused when the first musical number began. "Why are they dancing in the street?" asked Sammy. We should watch more musicals.

Sunday snapshot

We had a wonderful day. Here are some of the highlights.

Elisa almost took a step, but I think she just steadied herself while standing up, which she does more frequently. During sacrament meeting, she played under the pew with a ball she found.

Benjamin went to nursery without a hitch (yea!). He didn't even notice I left. This afternoon he pretended to be Nephi and kept breaking his bow. Tonight he was not tired at bedtime due to a long nap. After the other two were asleep, Benjamin and I read books. I don't often get one-on-one time with him, so tonight was very sweet.

Sammy prefers to hold the left side of the stroller when we cross a street during our evening walks. Who knows what's wrong with the right side? Last night (not today, but it was funny) we went to a spaghetti dinner at church. On the way out they gave us left-over spaghetti in a ziplock bag, and Sammy went around showing everyone the "dead worms."

Preparing dinner tonight I sang and danced around the kitchen. The kids are used to it and think I'm silly. If they were 10 years older, they'd probably roll their eyes and leave the room. But for now they're happy watching me have fun.

After dinner we had about half an hour until bedtime. I gave the boys 2 options: go on a walk or play "World of Warcraft." They unanimously and emphatically chose the walk. I was impressed.

Dominic will be calling me soon, once he gets out of work. Normally he can come home and relax, knowing the next day is his rest day - he catches up on his missed sleep. He's working tomorrow, so I hope he can still relax.

Snow?!

Here is the scene we woke up to this morning. It snowed on and off all weekend, but none of it stuck until today. I am such a weather wimp that it only took a second for me to decide not to run. I know, I know, people around here say it sometimes snows in June and July, but I'm ready for Spring. We are so ready, in fact, that we bought seeds last week and prepped them for planting. If the grounds ever thaws, we will plant Morning Glories, green beans and peas.

Weekend of food

To kick off the weekend, Dominic and I joined Aaron & Marrisse and Emily & Troy at Tepanyaki's to celebrate Dominic's graduation. Yeah, it's a little late, but with something as big as graduation, you really need to celebrate. Tepanyaki's was excellent. We've only been there a couple of times before, but it has never disappointed us. The best part of the evening was spending time with the Abbotts and Smalleys, without our children. When I mentioned to Dominic that we should get together with them more often, he pointed out that if it were easier to do, we would be doing that already. True.

Lisy has finally discovered cups. I introduced cups months ago, and Elisa quickly learned how to drink out of them but had no interest in liquids. Just recently she realized that we always have cups at mealtimes and she doesn't. So this weekend I've given her a cup of water for every meal, upon her insistence. Even though they are always sippy cups, somehow she manages to get water everywhere.

Between Sammy and Benjamin, they usually eat their whole dinner. Last night Benjamin ate the pasta and Sammy ate the green beans. Tonight Sammy ate the tomatoes and Benjamin ate the hot dogs; they both ate the couscous. I honestly never know who will eat what - their food preferences change often.

5K foolishness?

I am going to run a 5K fun run in July. Why, you ask? Well, it's like this: our stake is celebrating its 100th anniversary in July, and one of the celebratory activities is a run through all the wards in the stake. I haven't run seriously since high school, but I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Today I bought a pair of running shoes (half price!) and ran for 10 minutes. I wanted to quit after 4 minutes, but my goal was 10 and I did it. Unfortunately it took me several hours to recover fully. Should I blame it on the altitude? Nah, after living here 18 months, I'm just out of shape. That's when I started to think this might not be such a good idea. The run is in 4 months, so I have plenty of time to prepare. At least it's not a marathon.

P.S. Sammy had so much fun hunting Easter eggs yesterday that he's been hiding and finding them all day today. All but 2 eggs are either cracked or completely caved-in.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!! Easter may have been yesterday, but we celebrated it today so Dominic could join us. At least he gets paid double for working on a holiday, and it was less stressful celebrating today. After lunch we dyed eggs. Then we went to the store and bought half-priced candy. After dinner we hunted our dyed eggs, while the "Easter Bunny" hid the baskets. And of course the kids had a sugar-fest just before bed.

Elisa received baby food in her basket, so she kept trying to grab her brothers' chocolate, which resulted in lots of screaming: "No no Ee-ee! You can't eat candy!" Which reminds me, she won't eat regular baby food, so I add spices to it. Yesterday I put a little too much garlic in her vegetable stew. She gobbled it up, but her breath still smells garlicky today.

Sammy is getting too inquisitive. When I told him we talked to the Easter Bunny, who agreed to come a day later so Dad could join us, he kept asking how we talked to him. Um... email. When we let the kids loose in the house to find the baskets, he went straight to my bedroom closet (where all gifts are hidden), and he was perplexed that they weren't there. Once they had their baskets in-hand, he asked why he can't see the Easter Bunny. Um.. he's like Santa Clause and doesn't come if we see him... Ok, maybe he's like a super hero with a secret identity and he can't let anyone see him...

Benjamin enjoyed everything, but he kept cracking his eggs.

Children make us laugh

Here is Dominic playing World of Warcraft; Benjamin can fall asleep anywhere; Elisa kept trying to "type;" and Sammy was watching his dad play the game.




The kids are often saying and doing funny little things. Here are a few before I forget.

Sammy: I said, "Benjamin's feet, come here so I can put on your shoes;" he ignored me. Sammy laughing, said "silly feet!" Why? "Because they won't come to you."

The boys thought they wanted Slim Jims (the super greasy beef jerky). Benjamin took a bite and handed it back. Sammy put one in his mouth and declared he didn't like it. I insisted he take one bite (our rule with new food), but he refused. So he told Benjamin to be a dinosaur. Benjamin got down on all fours and growled. "Are you hungry?" Growl, growl. "This is dinosaur food!" and hand-fed the Slim Jim to Benjamin. I don't know if I'm annoyed to see Sammy manipulate Benjamin so easily, or if I'm impressed with Sammy's creativity to get Benjamin to eat something he didn't like.

Benjamin: Yesterday morning he came out of his bedroom wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head, singing Darth Vader's theme song. Then he pulled off the hood and said, "I not evil anymore."

The other day I saw Benjamin surrounding the base of his bed with the big toys (such as the riding toys) and the vent cover. I reminded him not to play with the vent cover, then I picked it up and put it back. Suddenly, the cat came running out from under the bed and out of the room. The poor cat had been taking a nap under the bed, and Benjamin was trying to keep her there. He was sad when she left.

Elisa: She puts the handle of her binky in her mouth and laughs. She also holds small toys or socks in her mouth and crawls around. So far I haven't gotten any pictures, but I'm working on it.

Last week she took Benjamin's dinner roll; he was quite incensed. When he reached for it, she clutched the roll tighter, turned away, and hurriedly ate it. Dominic says that Benjamin and Elisa are arch nemeses because they're always taking things away from eachother.

Pronunciation guide: Elisa is eh-LEE-suh
We usually call her Lisy, lee-see, like our cousin
And occasionally I call her Isa, which is EE-suh.

Scriptural Influence

Children imitate everything they see. It's a well-known fact. So it's good we have scriptural videos (they're the ones Dominic and his brothers grew up with). This afternoon Benjamin came up the front steps saying, "Mommy Moses, I baby Moses and you're my Mommy Moses," and then he cooed like a baby. I really don't understand both his and Sammy's fascination with baby noises, but they like to coo.

Also from the videos, the boys have learned about Daniel and the lion's den. Now the space behind the couch, where they are not allowed to play, is the lion's den. There have been several recent incidences where I hear vicious growling and screaming, run to the living room, and find that one boy is a lion and the other is Daniel. Why can't one of them pretend to be the angel? There would be much less screaming and growling. Have I mentioned that Lisy is growling? She growls a lot, usually when watching her brothers play.

The boys also like to pretend to be Samuel the Lamanite. They'll stand on anything, be it a couch, chair, table, etc. Benjamin is constantly telling me to "Eepent or oo ill be eestoyed!" (Translation: "Repent or you will be destroyed!") They also try to see who can say 'repent' the loudest. Re-enacting Samuel the Lamanite's famous sermon all began back in December. I remember it well: it was midday, in a crowded doctor's office waiting room, Elisa sleeping in my arms, the boys playing quietly behind me. All of a sudden, I hear Sammy's voice, loud enough to carry across the room, calling out "Hey everyone! Hey everyone! Repent, repent!" I'm sure my face went bright red. Quickly as I could without dropping the baby, I turned around, gestured emphatically to get off the coffee table he was standing on, and shushed in a loud whisper. Confused, he protested, "but Mom, I'm Samuel the Lamanite. That's what he says." And thus commenced a discussion on appropriate times and places to pretend.

Who knows what they'll do next?

Cookie confession

Are cookies considered a meal? No, not really, but that's what we ate the last 2 nights. Ok, here's the deal: both yesterday and today we had a big mid-afternoon meal. It was too late to be lunch but too early for dinner. At our usual dinner time, no one was hungry. So we had an evening snack. Yesterday I made chocolaty peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Yummy. One consolation was that we also drank milk. Today the girl scout cookies arrived, and they became our evening snack. Mmm... samoas, with the coconut and caramel, delicious! Well, the nutritionist in me can't let it happen again, so tomorrow will be better. I hope.

Graduation and Birthday

Yeah Dominic! This was his weekend. On Sunday Walden University granted his Master's degree. It will arrive in 6-8 weeks. It's finally over!! What do we do now? Who knows, but at least that hurdle (or mountain) is behind us.

And then, Dominic turned 29 on Monday. Yes, he is younger than me, but only by 15 months. Unfortunately we have all been sick this weekend. Not quite the flu, but a miserable head cold. We just sat on the couch and watched t.v. The wonderful Chinese food dinner I planned turned into frozen pizza, and brownie bites replaced the cake. I made the dinner tonight, and we did the cake, candles and presents yesterday. In the attached picture, we have the lovely Lisy modeling yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Movie review: The Invasion. I thought it was very good. There were a few places I covered my eyes, but it wasn't necessary - the music and suspense led me to think it would be. Dominic, who saw the 1970's version, said this one wasn't as scary (fine with me). It seems to us that filmmakers have forgotten how to use suspense to make a movie truly scary; nowadays they rely too much on the gross factor. But without anything to compare it too, I fully enjoyed this movie.

Cereal & Grapefruit

This morning Benjamin tried to pour his own cereal, but somehow it ended up all over the floor. In the 5 seconds it took me to turn around and put the cereal bag back on the counter, the boys dove mouth-first towards the floor and Elisa crawled at breakneck speed from the living room to "clean-up" the spill. How thoughtful of them. I said nothing to encourage this behavior, besides laughing and getting the camera.

Sammy thinks he likes grapefruit. While passing through the produce section earlier this week, he reached out and bagged 2 grapefruits. I do let him choose fruits and vegetables to encourage him trying new foods. He hasn't tried grapefruit since last summer, but he swore he loved it. Well, if he didn't, Dominic would eat it. Dominic doesn't go out of his way to buy grapefruit, but he does eat it. I find grapefruit revolting unless it's a soda.

So for a snack yesterday Sammy decided to eat grapefruit. Benjamin, who almost always follows his brother's lead, eagerly asked for it, too. I cut one in half, sweetened each half, then showed them how to eat it. Benjamin took one bite and spit it out. I asked, "What do you think? Do you like it?" He replied, "Ye... nooo." Fair enough. I turned to Sammy. "Do you like yours?" I asked. He actually said, "Yes. Daddy likes it, and I like it, too." It took him awhile, and he kept asking for more sugar, but he ate up his half.

Dominic was at work and I didn't want to waste Benjamin's grapefruit half. So I did the craziest thing and ate it. I poured the sugar on each segment. That kind of helped. The boys loved watching the funny faces I involuntarily made. Although I attempted to set a good example for them, it might have backfired. I still like the carbonated grapefruit best.

Trip to Spokane

Why does it take so long to get back to the normal routine after a trip? We were gone 10 days (counting travel time), and we've been home for 8 full days now.

Driving was a bit scary. Google maps gave an estimated travel time of 10 hours. We thought of making the trip in one day. Then Dominic spun out on the icy road during his commute. He called work and came home once his nerves calmed down; we decided to make it a 2-day journey. Good thing, too: we drove through a snow storm over the mountain passes in Idaho. There were times we could only go 20 miles per hour. Fortunately we made it safely there.

We had a fun week, meeting the new in-laws and playing with grandparents and uncles. Even though it's been one and a half years, Sammy remembered his extended family as if no time had passed, and Benjamin followed his brother's lead. Lisy took a little longer, but she eventually let everyone, including Froggy Grandpa, to hold her.

The wedding was beautiful. We were a little late due to road conditions (Spokane needs to employ more snow plows) and buying Dominic a new suit. When you take a big trip you're bound to forget something, and we forgot a suit. But it turned out alright. I have wanted to buy Dominic a new suit for awhile, so I'm counting that purchase as his birthday present this month. Oh yeah, the wedding. I enjoyed helping decorate the night before, and the place looked really nice. The colors, pink and burgundy, were perfect for a February wedding. The best part was how happy Devin and Maran both looked. I know part of it was getting married in the temple. Congratulations!

Why is it that we get sick whenever we travel? Dominic felt oogy that first night, but felt only queasy the rest of the week. Benjamin threw up twice: once in his grandparents' hotel room (the smell was so bad they had to switch rooms) and once in a restaurant.

Overall we had a good trip. The kids did very well in the car. Elisa did pretty well considering she grew a new tooth. Two more erupted since coming home, bringing her up to 6 teeth.

Christmas tree myths debunked

I'd like to share a few things I learned about Christmas trees and children. Myth #1: Put the fragile at the top of the tree, where they will be safe. 2 problems - balls and lightsabers. To quote Sammy, "I don't know why it broke. All I did was throw this (a ball) at the tree." And lightsabers can reach much higher than little arms. Myth #2: Fake trees don't lose their needles. Well, lightsaber battles near the tree don't help. Plus, the needles fall off in droves when a rolly-polly toddler lifts up his shirt and charges tummy-first into the tree, repeatedly.

Cute Sammy story: Sammy was trying to go somewhere, but Elisa was in the way. He said, "Move, Lisy. C'mon, Lisy, move out of the way. Why isn't she moving?" So I had to explain that although she can crawl, she doesn't yet understand what we're saying (but she does recognize her name).

Cute Benjamin story: Lately Benjamin will state in all seriousness, "I a boy." Once I asked him what that meant. His reply, " I a daddy dinosaur (pronounced die-o-or)." The next time I asked the same question, he said, "Me!"

out of the habit

Yeah! My computer is back up and running! It wasn't the monitor but the video card that died. The old video card was 4 years old, and now I've got a really nice one. It is great to again check email, to look things up with just a click, and to relax with a little World of Warcraft in the evenings. The odd part is that losing the use of my computer for 6 weeks got me out of the habit of turning on my PC. I've gradually added my old habits and have finally gotten back to blogging. It's a good thing, too, because the kids just keep getting cuter, and I want to tell people about them.

For instance, Isa is pulling herself to standing, and yesterday (on her 8-month birthday) she started cruising along the futon. I think she'll start walking early. Ben Ben is demonstrating all the signs of readiness to potty train (yea!). Sammy put together an entire alphabet puzzle all by himself. He may not know all the letters, but he is learning the differences between A & V, O & Q, M & W. Plus, the boys are carrying their sister to me much more often; it's incredibly cute to watch, but it makes her cry even harder.

By the way, have I mentioned how difficult it is to type while the cat sits on my lap? She loves to curl up on my lap and get her ears and chin scratched. Well, with the way my computer is set up, I put the keyboard on my lap to type. There's not enough room for both keyboard and cat; she thinks she is more important than the keyboard, but I can throw her off :)

i'm back

it turns out it wasn't the monitor, but the video card that died. i've got a new card, and i'm back online. i'll post more later when the kids are asleep.

No monitor

In case you've wondered what happened to me, nothing. It's the computer. All of a sudden it didn't like the monitor anymore. We have another monitor in the garage, but it's been cold outside. Today I actually brought in the Christmas boxes but forgot the monitor. So I'm borrowing Dominic's laptop. I've always been able to borrow it, but I don't think about it until he turns it on.

What you've missed: one Sunday morning we were rushing around like usual, when I noticed the degu cage was open and empty (I'm not a fan of scurrying animals). Dominic! Help!! He came rushing into the kids' room, found and caged the free-roaming rodents.

It's amazing Dominic came rushing in so quickly, because he was knocked out from taking pain meds for torticollis, or wry neck. It happened fairly suddenly and painfully. He wore a neck brace until he could see a doctor and start physical therapy. He is doing so much better now. But the effect is that now the boys put on the neck brace (or anything resembling a neck brace) and say, "I'm Daddy. Look at me! I'm Daddy."

And of course, Thanksgiving. Dominic's brother Devin came down from Idaho, and we all went to Emily and Troy's house. The Abbotts and the Pauls were there, too. The house is large enough that the kids can play while the adults talk, and they don't interfere with eachother. Very nice. The Smalleys and Abbotts helped me a lot when I was a student, so to return the favor we sent Devin back to school with a trunk full of food; I'm glad we could do that for him.

On Saturday we helped our downstairs neighbors move. They were great neighbors - the kids never bothered them, even when jumping off the furniture. They are moving into a house, so I'm happy for them and hope our new neighbors will also tolerate our noise.

Crazy day

It all started this morning when Benjamin woke me up by carrying an unopened bottle of root beer and asking if he could have some. I said no and rolled over. A little later I heard Sammy say, "Good job. You opened it all by yourself." Uh-oh. So I went to the kitchen and found that Sammy had gotten 2 cups and poured them both half full of milk. And since Benjamin opened the root beer (how? he can't even open doors!), I reached the kitchen just in time. I poured the root beer and made them brown cows, because I was so impressed with their determination.

After breakfast Dominic worked on breaking down a box spring mattress that someone gave us but didn't fit in the boys' room. The boys "helped" by hitting the bed frame with hammers. They kept saying they were building Noah's ark.

Then I started making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and I turned on the wrong burner. I melted a clock, which I had left on the stove. Dominic suggested that I turn on the burner to melt off the plastic stuck to the burner. It worked great until a glob of plastic, which had fallen onto the catch plate, caught on fire. Barely keeping my wits about me, I quickly placed a pot lid over the burner and put out the fire. Of course Sammy kept asking if a firetruck was going to come. Sorry, I didn't burn down the kitchen, just scorched the stove. I opened the front and side doors, but the smell lingered until I cooked dinner. While the doors were open, a big dog came in. Not a stray; it wore a collar. He left easily, but it was very strange.

After lunch I took a nap. I've needed one for awhile, and this morning's excitement cinched the fact. But I was good - I set the alarm. However, I slept through the alarm, taking a 3-hour nap. Wow, that was a long nap. Now it's past midnight and I'm still going strong. Fortunately nothing exciting happened for the rest of the day.

Movie review: Ocean's Thirteen. A lot of fun like the previous two. There were funny little side stories, and they brought back their targets from the last 2 films. I especially enjoyed the parts with Oprah. The movie also reminded me of how much I don't like Las Vegas. Walk into any casino, and it's an instant headache from the lights and noise.

Cat in the garage

I feel so productive this weekend. On Friday I packed away all the kids' summer and out-grown clothes. Then on Saturday I put away the Halloween decorations. Fortunately we don't have any Thanksgiving decorations, because I don't have the motivation to put up anything for it. And I still need to sort through my clothes - all my winter, summer and pregnancy clothes are piled around the room, and I think the piles are merging. The best part about puttting the boxes in the garage is that I found our cat.

She occasionally disappears for a few days at a time, so I wasn't worried about not seeing her since Tuesday (the day I brought out the winter clothes). Walking toward the garage I heard loud and pitiful mewing. When I opened the door, she ran out and immediately celebrated by rolling in the dirt. She followed me around like a puppy dog and even let the kids catch her. She has been sitting in my lap a lot more this weekend, even if Elisa is already in my arms (the cat usually doesn't like getting her fur pulled by a curious baby).

By the way, Elisa is turning over! She did it the first time last week. Then she turned over again today and started crying; I guess it scared her :)