Everyday life

I realized that all of my posts lately have been about big events, and decided for a change of pace today.  One of the main reasons I keep this blog is to look back and remember, and sometimes the details of daily life are more fun to read about than the red-letter days!

Baby Jasmine seems to get bigger every day.  She was really good at baby food, so I steamed and pureed some carrots and sweet potatoes.  I was so proud of this freezer stash!  For two days, at least.  Truly, two days later, she went from gobbling up the entire thing quickly (and cleanly) to sobbing when I brought the spoon near her and turning her head frantically.  But when I plopped food on her tray and let her go to town, she was thrilled.  So this is now the daily occurrence around here: strip down the baby and give her chunks of avocado, banana, sweet potatoes or carrots to mangle.

Every once in a while the food makes it in, instead of mushed in her lap and all over herself.

And then give her a bath in the laundry sink.  She loves every minute of that!

She has been on the verge of crawling for almost two months now, which makes us laugh.  Some days she does a pretty good army crawl, though she usually gets up in position and then launches herself forward with her toes and flops the belly down.  And then other times she will see something two feet away and just sob until someone comes to get her.  "I can't make it!"

The poor girl has "boy" hair.  Long on top, short on the sides.  But she refuses to let me get that fine hair pinned in any way, and since it is only long in the front she ends up looking like a unicorn if the hair gets into the rubber band.  Oh well.

In other news, she also has one little tooth!  She started growing that right when she got the cold that went through our family, so she hasn't been the happiest camper lately.  Thankfully she seems past the worst of both.

Kaitlyn just cracks me up.  She is in love with TV, unfortunately.  I have to limit her every day, or else she was do nothing else.  The latest has been Phineas and Ferb, which is actually a really fun show.  She will also talk your ear off all day if you are around.  A lot of the time I tune her out when the stories go on and on and start thinking about the laundry I need to do and what we are going to make for dinner and what else we are doing that week and then OH!  realize she is STILL going.

She is also writing us messages and books.  I didn't want to be too harsh, so I have been telling what a great job she is doing and not correcting the horrible spelling.  That comes back to haunt me every once in a while when I do correct her and she tells me that I am wrong; her way is the right way.  This is page 3 and 4 of a book she wrote us lately, which she told me was about the Book of Mormon and had a picture of "Mapunzel" and her long hair:

The notes are so sweet though!  The other day, I found this on my pillow when I went to bed:

The hearts are beating, if you were curious.

Right now she is also big on kissing us on the cheek and saying "bye" four or five times as she waves and trots off to preschool or anything else.  (I have to document this and treasure this, since I'm sure in just a few years she will be rolling her eyes at me when I try to hug her, and telling me I am embarrassing her in front of her cool friends.  At least, I'm told that's how it is going to work!)

For now, her friends come over after preschool to play dolls and kitchen and wear capes and dress-ups and practice "the show" together.

And then there is Tyler.  We always love the randomness from him, since his mind works like a parrot in some ways.  He notices things around him and takes them in, and then repeats them in funny places.  Last year his teacher assigned a color to each student (since many couldn't read their name), and green is for Tyler.  Tyler is now convinced that all things green are his, since green is for Tyler.  "Look  Daddy!  That grass is green!  Green is for Tyler!"  That's been a running joke in our family.  He still wanders around singing to himself.  I don't know where he picked it up, since I don't like this song much, but he really likes the "weeeeEE are never ever ever . . . getting back together" song on the radio right now.  And then last week Daddy got a new soft football, determined to teach him to catch it.  When I opened the box in the car and handed it to him though, he immediately said "my name is called Tyler and I like to . . . run!  Your turn Kaitlyn!" and gave it to his sister to repeat the pattern.  Turns out they had been playing that at school, to learn only one person talking at a time and taking turns.  They kept that going the whole way home that night, and I had a really hard time keeping a straight face when Tyler said that "I like to throw toys" and handed it off like that was normal.

Daddy has also been teaching him some video game skills.  I would make fun of that more, but it is a good thing for him to figure out where he wants the character to go and how to make him get there.  They love the Diego game they got for Christmas last year.

And he seems to be doing well in school, too.  Tyler has his struggles, but we will always feel blessed that he is such a sweet and easy-going kiddo.  That usually means that he has teachers and aides that adore him, which is fun.

One of the aides told me the other day when I came in to drop him off that "we're not supposed to have favorites, but . . ." she laughed, and dropped her voice to a stage whisper, "he's my favorite!"  He has a long way to go in life, but I think that his ability to be happy and friendly to everyone is going to be a big help.

Oh, and one more funny story.  Last month I wasn't feeling well and slept in while Daddy got the kids up and dressed.  But I jumped out when I remembered that it was actually picture day for Tyler . . .and the bus was coming in a couple of minutes.  So I quickly found a better shirt for him and told Daddy to fix his hair.  Every morning when Tyler wakes up he has a tuft pointing straight up where he slept that night.  And when I saw him come off the bus that afternoon, I cringed.  Sure enough, that's what he looked like for pictures.

Christopher claims that he did something else that morning and that one of the teachers must have done this, but I'm not buying it.  And the stunned look on Tyler's face doesn't help anything!

The kids had fun today.  It has actually been nearly 70 degrees for the last week or two, so we tried to make the best of our final outdoor time for the year.  And then today we had a great snowfall, and they were thrilled to dig out the snow gear and play in it all.

And tomorrow Grandpa is coming to visit us!  Well, actually he is flying out because his job wants him to help at the Salt Palace nearby next week.  But we'll take any chance we get to see them!