Tyler moment

Tyler is a funny guy. Lately I have been really struggling with . . . hopelessness about him. I just don't see progress like I want to. One of our biggest struggles is getting him to actively care about the world around him enough to communicate and change it. That's a simple thing for most kids- they want juice, so they ask for juice. But Tyler just waits and hopes for things silently.

The other night I made a dessert for FHE night. Kaitlyn loved it, but Tyler wouldn't touch it. Just skuttled back from it as though it was going to eat him instead. The next day for lunch, he was eating rather well so I thought I would put a small slice on his plate for him. But then he said "NO! I don't want it!" and pushed it away. For Tyler that was awesome! I don't know why he is so upset over a dessert, but I guess whatever motivates him is good with me.

But my favorite Tyler moment is one his teacher told me about today. I guess yesterday when he came into the classroom he went to the center of the room and looked around as though he had never seen the place before. And then he spread his arms out and said "this is WONDERFUL!" The aides all said it made their day.

On the down side, he has somehow learned the chorus to Bad Romance from Lady GaGa. Daddy is encouraging this, which worries me. "Ro - ma , ro - ma - LA! Ro - ma, Ro - ma -LA! I got a RO - MA!"

Kaitlyn's first haircut

Well, I decided it was finally time. As much as I love putting Kaitlyn's hair into pigtails and such, the ends were just scraggly baby hair, and it need to get evened up a bit. So I asked my neighbor friend Julane, and she gave Kaitlyn this cute little bob! And now, a before and after:

In case you are wondering, her hair is that curly for the first day, slowly falling down until it is mostly straight the day after a wash. But really all it took for that look was some shine serum and a little bit of gel. I am rather jealous.

After getting the haircut, we got to spend time with some friends at Kangaroo Zoo, a local bounce house. This was Kaitlyn's first time old enough to go up and down everything on her own, and she sure took advantage of that. I had a hard time keeping track when two kids would run in opposite directions at once!

I hate the shadow on this next picture, but I love seeing her tongue stick out for the water as she reaches on her tippy toes. Once she discovered this drinking fountain, she didn't want to do anything else. Her shirt was soaked, but every time I took her away she ran right back to it.

Learning how to learn

I learned a lot from being a teacher, but one lesson in particular has always stuck out. You see, when I was a student, I never wanted to be the one asking dumb questions. I would come in to certain teachers after class, but it really depended on how comfortable I felt with the teacher. You might think it was my peers in the class I was afraid of, but really - it was the teachers. I'd say most of my professors in college never knew my name. And in college, I was particularly stubborn on the Math Lab. BYU has a fantastic Math Lab, where you can go and get help for free on all of your classes. But I never set foot in the place. I was technically qualified to work there, and looking back, I think it was really pride that kept me from going there for help, even when all my friends did. I would rather stuggle on my own, 50 feet away.

When I started teaching high school Algebra, I noticed the students just like me. The ones that kept it to themselves when they didn't understand, but lit up when someone else asked the question for them. I could tell- they didn't want me to know if they struggled. They wanted me to think they knew it all. But you know what never occured to me as a student, or to those kids in my class?

You can't hide from the teacher. The teacher grades your tests, and knows exactly how well you are doing.

So why hide? Why keep all your questions to yourself and hope someone else asks them? Because as a teacher, I had a lot more respect for the kids who asked me questions. I knew what they could do and struggled with, and gave them the benifit of the doubt when I could. It turns out the silent kids like me were a notch down.

Recently I started going to a photography class. And over the first week or two, it suddenly occured to me that I was doing the exact same thing. I felt like I knew more than most of the class- I had my camera for a year before the class started, and read most of the basics on the internet beforehand. And somehow I thought that keeping silent would communicate that to the teacher. Or maybe even just prove it to myself.

So I decided: it was time to change.

The next week, he asked if anyone had pictures to show the class. Keeping in mind my new resolve, I brought up my SD card. It was nervewracking, that's for sure. And he very quickly pointed out a big mistake I had made. But you know what? I wouldn't have known about that mistake otherwise. I am paying for this class to learn. How else am I going to learn?

In fact, I felt so bold that after class I went up and asked him questions.

Now, during the time that I was watching the show with my Grandfather last Saturday, my photography class was meeting in a park to take pictures with the professor and learn on the go. I had asked the teacher what I could do instead, and he told me to take pictures of something- anything. And so I took my camera to the dance that weekend, and took pictures. I adjusted my settings like he showed us to. I stood on a chair in my four and half in heels so I could see the band better, up on their stage. I felt rather silly, wandering around taking pictures while everyone else was enjoying the night. (I told my friends that I felt like a strange band groupie, but they told me I looked like a hired professional photographer. Aww, thanks guys!)

And then ever since that night, I thought about my settings and cringed. Did I do things right? I had to adjust for the dark lighting, so I did things differently than what he told us.

By the time I came into class last night, I had firmy decided not to show my pictures. But when he opened the class, he said asked if anyone had pictures to bring up. And then he looked at ME. "Did you get a chance to take any pictures this weekend?"

Caught.

"Yeah, but it was of my husband's band in a dark-lit Dance, so I'm not really proud of them."

"Well, let's take a look at them- they will be something different."

Deep breath. Long walk up to the front.

He listened while I described the settings I had used and why, along with the struggles I was up against. He showed my pictures to the class and talked about them. And he told that I had used the best settings I could have, given the equipment and the lighting that I had.

I did it right!

They aren't the best shots ever. But just knowing that I did the best I could have really made my night.

I guess you really are never too old to learn!

A really good day

Last Saturday was a really good day, especially considering that I spent 4 hours of it driving. Let me back up for a minute.

I have a cute Grandpa. He is a true gentleman, in relatively good health at 96 years old, and we have been really good friends ever since I was a lonely girl that moved across the country on her own for college three months after my Grandma died. It was perfect timing (as much as I would have loved to know my Grandma better) because we ended up going on many "dates" together. And my Grandpa loves shows. Anything with music and dancing- he has season tickets to Ballet West and the Opera, and every year I have taken him to BYU's Christmas Around the World show. But this year I was in Disneyland the weekend of the performance, so for Christmas I told him I would take him to a different show soon.

So last Saturday I brought him down for a Young Ambassador's show. The four hours of driving was picking him up in Salt Lake and driving him back, but it was totally worth it. We had lunch together, and the show was awesome! The best part was that it was actually the 40th Anniversary for Young Ambassadors. So they had invited all of their alumni from the past 40 years to come back for the show and perform. I don't think that would work for most groups on campus, but if you are good enough to make Young Ambassadors, you are VERY serious about singing and dancing, and I guess you just can't get that out of your system. I thought they would just have them in one number or two, but about two numbers in I noticed - "hang on, there are too many people on stage" which led to "OH! The back row looks like they are 50 years old!" And they were up there, singing and dancing just like the 20 year old front row. I was very impressed. Not to mention, they had some special alumni that got introduced, with long lists of all the Broadway shows they had been on since graduating. One of them in particular just floored me with his "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables. Wow.

Anyway, after driving my grandpa back up to my Aunt's house, I dashed back down to change for my date. Christopher plays in a little jazz band our former Bishop started, and they were playing in a "Love for Haiti" benifit Ball that night. Since there were two bands playing, we got to enjoy the first half, and then I got to enjoy watching him play the second half.

And here are the Buzztones.

There are a lot of people to sort through in the band, but my husband would be the shaved head in the middle playing the trombone.

They did really well! We (the spouses left in the audience) were worried since they hadn't played together in close to a year, but they were great. They aren't anything fancy- most of them are guys like my husband, who played in high school and college, and now only pick up the instrument for these gigs. But hey, they only charge a couple hundred bucks for weddings, and you get a nearly 20 peice band. So they are certainly worth that!

What a great Valentine's weekend! I got to have two dates with my two of my favorite guys. Who could ask for anything more?

Stinker.

I tell ya, Kaitlyn is a funny little spunk. She always knows how to make us laugh- from the "um . . . no." little comments to the way she gallops around the room. And she is way too smart for her own good. I've mentioned before that I am terrified of potty training, but this girl is going to drag me through it. She is fascinated with it all. Loves to sit on the potty, and has recently taken to taking off her diaper if she goes in it. She started Pull-Ups this morning, and my intention is to take her to the potty a few dozen times every day so she gets the idea, and then go for it. Because for all the interest, she still mostly just sits down, grunts, and tells me "stuck."

But this weekend we had a couple of funny moments with her. Last Saturday we had some friends over playing Wii in the basement. There is a separate bedroom we use as a playroom down there, and the kids generally wander back and forth between watching us play, the random toys in their room there, and occasionally take a trip upstairs for something and bring it down.

Well, a while into the game I noticed that we hadn't seen Kaitlyn in a while. We played another level, and she still didn't show up, so I started to worry. When I got upstairs, I got really scared- the house was quiet. UH oh. So I ran upstairs a bit quicker- and found her asleep in her bed. I guess when I tried to put her down for her nap at 3:30, she didn't want to go. But at 5:30 she decided it was time- and went upstairs, climbed in bed, and went to sleep- blanket and all.

Then, tonight, I once again noticed that she was gone for a while. Oh dear. So I check the playroom- and find a poopy pull-up, sitting (face up, thank heavens) on the carpet. I race upstairs, and find that she had already gotten herself a new pull-up and put it on (wiping apparently not nessesary) and was in bed in her dark room. I will be looking for stray poop residue for days.

So, if you're counting, one night she put herself to bed, and another night she changed her own diaper.

I preferred the first one.

That's why we call her stinker.

Not much

I haven't blogged in a while, but I don't have much to report anyway. Let's see . . .

My birthday was last week. The day itself was a typical day, but I did get one big treat. When the house was quiet (Kaitlyn napping, Tyler at school) and I went to start on my usual chores while I can, I realised how tired I was. And then I remembered it was my birthday. So I took a nap and accomplished nothing. Take that.

I did get a date out of it though, and that was great. We went to Texas Steakhouse, which was great despite the over-crowdedness. (We called ahead to get on the list, and still had to wait when we got there. 2 hours? Seriously?) And then we saw Avatar at the Imax in South Jordan. The visuals are stunning, but it kinda suprises me how little they put into the plot, for the money they sunk into the visual effects. Still worth seeing though. Mostly, I loved just having a night to hang out with my hubby. He's a pretty awesome guy.

Today, Tyler got sick. Can you just feel the misery?

He had a bit of a runny nose yesterday, but today is a "sitting on the couch watching cartoons" day. Poor guy. When I turned off the TV for lunch, he wandered off and tried to play, but kept laying down on the floor for a few minutes before getting up and trying again. Here's hoping we can miraculously prevent Kaitlyn from getting it.

I have my Photography class again tonight! That was a birthday present to myself, I suppose. I'm taking a DSLR class through UVU Community Ed. The first class was good- in a lot of ways I should have taken the intermediate instead of the beginner, but all of my "beginner" knowledge was pieced together from random internet sources, so it is actually great to pull it all together into solid advice from a real human.

Birthdays

I mentioned in the last post that my extended family has too many birthdays in January. In my family, my husband was thankfully born in October. But Kaitlyn, Tyler and I were all born in January.

Last night we went to Pirate Island to celebrate with our kids. Tyler was sick on his birthday before we went to Vegas, and since they don't understand the concept anyway, they got their presents whenever we bought them this month, and we just went to celebrate when we could. We hadn't been to this place yet, but if you live in the area I highly recommend it! It is a theme restaurant, and is somewhere between Disneyland and Chuck-E Cheese. I wish I had pictures of the place, but my flash battery died while we were there. But it is a pirate theme in a classy way, with animatronics and pirate waiters and really awesome decorations. It has an arcade with tokens and tickets you redeem for prizes, and a little play area with a couple of slides, but on top of that it is a true restaurant with good food. Oh, and a stage where they had karaoke going. I want to try the "Lil Pirate Playtime" on Wednesday mornings, where a pirate reads stories to kids for lunch.

I decided we would bring the pirate hats for the kids, and I wore my pirate leather vest. Because where else can you do that?

And since I haven't done an update like this in a while, I figured it would be good to have a snapshot of what my kids are like at their birthdays.

Tyler:

*Tyler loves going to school. I haven't seen huge improvements in his conversation, but he is repeating a lot more and talking a lot more. And now he knows how to use scissors, trace dots on paper, and climb in and out of a school bus by himself.

*Speaking of talking, he has been calling everyone "sweetie" or "little one" for some time now. I guess that is what people call him, and he figures that is what everyone is called. So when he hands us things, he says "here you go, little one!"

*If you want to confuse Tyler, ask him how old he is. We finally got him to say he is three years old, just in time for him to turn four. So now he just gets the dejected, confused face when we correct him and tell him to say "four years old" instead. And then last night in the car Daddy was trying to teach Kaitlyn that she is two years old, and Tyler kept inturrupting to help out and tell her to say four years old. So not only does the answer to this question change, but it is different for every person? Good grief, you people are confusing!

*Tyler just moved into Sunbeams in church. On his first week in the new class, he got to come up to the front in Sharing Time and get a little flashlight on a necklace string for his birthday. He didn't take that flashlight off for over 24 hours. Not to eat, and not to sleep, and if we tried to take it off he put it right back on.

*Tyler is still my cuddler. And giggler. He loves being tickled, and will curl up in anyone's arms for as long as you will let him. He also loves slides, PB & J, and rarely gets upset about anything. But when he does, he doesn't know how to tell you what's wrong, so we just have to keep guessing until we have fixed the problem.

Kaitlyn:

*Kaitlyn just moved into a big girl toddler bed in Tyler's room. I was nervous about putting them in the same room, but it is a big room and there wasn't a lot of other options without rewiring the house to move the computer room. There were a lot of Tyler giggles the first night he got a roommate, but other than that they have been fine. And Kailtyn goes to sleep fine in her new bed. Except for naptime, when she has discovered that she can climb back out and keep playing. We're working on that.

*She loves cleaning. She will take wet wipes and clean walls and toys whenever she can, she asks for napkins anytime things spill while she eats, and she has a little broom to help me "swup swup" the floor.

*She loves to play with her Daddy. When he tickles her feet, she will screech "Ow, Daddy! Ow!" while she laughs. Then when he stops, she pauses, and sticks out the other foot to be tickled.

*She takes good care of her big brother. Whenever she has decided she needs juice or a snack or something, she finds me and asks me for it. And then when I get her set up she says "Tyla juice!" and refuses to drink hers until Tyler has some too. Despite the fact that Tyler was playing happily in the other room with his toys.

*Kaitlyn got a little baby set from Grandma for her birthday, and loves it. She is constantly telling me that the baby is going night night in the little crib or eating in the high chair. So cute.

*Kaitlyn loves pizza. And fruit snacks. And all kinds of fruit, or juice. And fruit snacks. And using a fork. But mostly fruit snacks. Which she calls "nack" and points to her neck when she asks for them. They sound the same, so they must be the same.