Like a baby with the bathwater

We had the missionaries for dinner last night. After we ate, they gave a little lesson to the kids about tithing. Elder Koop prepared to read a scripture and told the kids to listen for what kind of blessings we could get for paying tithing. Before he could even start reading, Dani piped up, "He opens the windows and throws out the blessings!" And believe it or not, Elder Koop was preparing to read " prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Wish I could say she learned that from us, but I suspect her primary teacher, Sister Hauwiller, had more to do with it than us.

I have nice kids

I found Brendan sucking on a piece of broken glass today. It was a baby food jar that Dani had been using for a money jar. Somehow, someone had broken it and never informed an adult so taht the mess could be cleaned up. He appeared to only cut the corner of his mouth and maybe his gums. I got the doctor on the phone who suggested we find all the broken pieces and make sure none were missing -- none were, though that didn't stop me from sticking my finger way back into his mouth and gagging him to make sure his throat wasn't bleeding. At first Dani was more concerned about the whereabouts of her money than with her brother's condition, but after we confirmed that he was ok, she came up to me with big, teary eyes and asked, "Is Brenny going to die?? I don't want him to die." Poor sweet little girl.... and little boy.


We stupidly went running today around 3:00. It was in the upper 80s and the humidity was disgusting. Yet, we loaded Brendan, Evan and Dani into the jogging strollers and got Emily on her bike and headed out. About 2 minutes into the run, I asked Jay if we could turn around and go run on the treadmill -- he said we had already gone to the trouble of getting the kids ready so just finish the run. Tough guy. Emily does not enjoy these runs very much. 30 minutes of bike riding usually tires her out pretty good, but today she did great. There was a little whining at first, but she finished strong. By the end, Jay and I were drenched and tired, but Emily whizzed ahead of us and got into the house while we were still at the end of our street. When I came in, I found a big glass of ice water on the counter next to a paper which read "For Mom." Another sweet girl.


Tonight after movie night, we played for a while and got a little wild. At one point Brendan stepped on my hair, being a little hyper, I made a bigger deal out if it than needed to be, yelling and carrying on. The big kids thought it was funny, Brendan didn't. Scared him a bit, started crying. For the rest of our playtime, anytime one of the kids shrieked, he would start to cry. One time Emily said, "Aww, Mom, he's looking at me with those big glimmering eyes. Glimmering with tears...." Funny girl too, even if unintentionally.

Aspirations

Dani: Mom, can I be one of those... what are those guys that go in space?
Me: An astronaut?
Dani: Yeah, can I be an astronaut when I grow up?
Me: Sure! That's a cool job. But its kind of dangerous too
Dani: How is it dangerous.
Me: Well, space is a dangerous place to go, lots of things can happen.
Dani: Like what?
Me: Oh, your space ship could burn up, or you could run out of air.
Dani: I wouldn't run out of air! I would just take of my mask for a minute................................................................would that make me die?
Me: Uh, yeah.
Dani: I won't do that. What about a police.
Me: You could do that too. But that's a pretty dangerous job, too.
Dani: How is it dangerous?
Me: Well, you deal with bad guys who can do bad things to you, like shoot you or hurt you.
Dani: What about a fireman?
Me: Fireman is a good job, but its also dangerous.
Dani: But I'll put OUT fires.
Me: But you have to go INTO fires to save people.
Dani: What about a hospital worker? Is that dangerous?
Me: No, that one's not too bad.
Dani: I'll be a hospital worker. What do hospital workers do?
Me: They help people who are sick. Like nurses. Lots of nurses helped you when you were sick in the hospital.
Dani: Do nurses know how to take out bones?
Me: Hm... no I think doctors do that.
Dani: Why don't nurses?
Me: Becuase its not part of their job.
Dani: But I played Dr with that Dr kit and I was a nurse and I knew how to take out bones.
Me: Well then, maybe nurses do know how to take out bones.
Evan has been listening to this coverstation and chimes in.
Evan: Mom, when I grow up, I be a popscicle man!
Me: Woooowwww... what a great job.
Dani: I think I'll work at Meijer....

It Could Happen

Emily: Mom, do you know what word is in our name
Me:........Rest?
Emily: Yeah... if someone was trying to spell "rest" and didn't really know what they were doing, and they put "uccia" at the end, they would spell our name!!!

A New Tradition is Born

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Adrienne stopped in Chicago this weekend on their move to Balitmore. Since it was Ryan's birthday and company is a great excuse to do fun stuff, we went to Chicago to the Taste of Chicago Festival on Friday. Jason and I actually went there on a date a week earlier, so we had some idea of what to expect. Sixty Chicago restraunts set up tents and sell an amazing variety of foods. Everyone had a favorite -- Dani liked the Vienna Beef hot dogs; Evan, cheese pizza; and Emily liked frozen chocolate banana and fried ravioli. Jason and I liked the spinach stuffed pizza. I also was a pretty big fan of the baklava . Maybe next year I'll be brave enough to try things like stuffed grape leaves, collard green eggrolls, and sauteed goat and fried plantains. Maybe.

After the Taste, we walked down to Millenium Park and played in Crown Fountain. I'd say Brendan was the biggest fan of that one. He took off crawling through the water, chasing Evan and trying to climb up him.


















We also checked out the Cloud Gate sculpture in the park. It looks like a giant silver kidney and reminds me very much of a Disney Sunday movie we saw when I was a kid, "Flight of the Navigator." It is supposed to reflect the city skyline, but people are more interested in seeing themselves in it, as were my kids.











The only bummer part of the day was that we got stuck in traffic and took nearly 2 hours to get home. The kids absolutely loved the day. Evan is already asking to go back to "cah-go." I think we'll make the Taste a yearly tradition!

Terror in the skies

The Fourth of July celebrations have been pretty traumatic for Evan. We JUST got Dani to stop being afraid of fireworks and Evan started up this year. We went to a fireworks show in our old subdivision on Saturday. As we drove over there, you could see people setting off fireworks at their homes and the kids were so excited to see them. When we finally pulled up to our friends house, they all jumped out of the car, JUST as the neighbor across the street lit a firework. It launched into the air, heading in our general direction and Evan said, "Look, Mom! A... NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as he started running from the firework, flinging his arms over his head to protect himself from firey death streaking through the air. Since that moment, he has been PETRIFIED everytime he sees or hears a firework. We tried to get him to watch the show, but he curled up in my lap, squeezed his eyes shut, stuck his fingers in his ears and whimpered, "I want go home... I want go home...." for 20 minutes. And of course, for days before and days after the Fourth, there are always people setting off fireworks in the neighborhood. He has fallen asleep a couple of times, curled up in that same position. How many years will it take to cure him?



The girls, on the other hand, have loved all the fireworks. The guy across the street from us has been setting them off on occasion for about a month and Emily loves to watch them from her bedroom window. Dani's favorite continues to be the "Grandpa Nally," known to less creative folks as the Grand Finale. We discovered a new pryomaniacal pastime this year, too -- sparklers! We had a barbeque with our friends the Hales, who brough some fireworks, which we set off, and 16 boxes of sparklers. WAY more sparklers than 5 kids could light (since Evan insisted on staying inside and watching Dora the Explorer, rather than expose himself to certain terror outside). Finally, Kimball, Laura and I stuck all the sparklers in the ground and tried to light them all at the same time. The first lit ones died before long before the last lit ones were lit and it looked something like a ceremony of questionable origins, but it was still pretty cool.

The Hair

Jason and Emily want to cut Brendan's hair, but I insist they wait until he's at least 1. I love how it sticks up all over. I get comments on how great his hair is all the time. Its part of his baby-cuteness. I'm not ready for him to be a boy yet. Not to mention the fact that if we cut the top, he'll be BALD again. We'll see if I'm even ready to let it be cut when he's a year!

Car Wash

On a day that I felt motivated to try to be a good mom that was too cool to go to the pool, I let the kids wash the car. They actually did a good job, but of course, the real fun was the car was clean and they got to play with the hose! They took turns chasing and spraying each other, then they decided the chasing wasn't as much fun and they just curled up in little balls and let the sprayer douse them. The best part, laying out in the warm sunshine to dry off. Just as much fun as the pool and the car is clean too!

Rainbow

Illinois is not the prettiest state I've ever lived in. Its really flat and there aren't many trees. But if wasn't like that, we wouldn't see these so often. This is the second one this month!

Cool at the Pool

The neighborhood pool was one of the big reasons we lusted after a house in this subdivision. When I was a kid, we ALWAYS had some sort of access to a pool and I HAD to have that for my children. We have been spending many hours lounging around in the cool water -- partly becuase its nice and warm, but still windy (this IS Chicago after all) and once you get in, you can't let any wet part of your body above the water or else you FREEZE -- at least, that's what happens to me. The kids don't seem to mind too much. They can be turning blue with chattering teeth and you ask them, "Wanna go home now?" and they say "N-n-n-no... I'm h-h-hav-v-ving f-f-f-f-f-f-f-fun!" They see nothing wrong with dragging me or Jason out of the pool time and time again to go down the big waterslide (truly a slide worthy of a real waterpark... a small waterpark, but still...). Evan is willing to go anywhere in the pool, with or without supervision,unfortunatly! He especially loves it when Daddy comes with us and lets him throw the basketball in the hoop in the deep water. Emily has made several new friends, and also sees lots of kids from her school and ends up swimming with them more than with us. Yesterday, we were at the pool and she was swimming by herself, but I could see her doing all the things I used to love doing in the pool -- handstands, swimming along the very bottom of the pool, seeing all the funny ways I could move my body in the water. I'm so glad we have access to this pool!







Dani's fear of the water has slowly beein fading. A few sessions of dealing with an uncomfortable heart went a long way toward increasing her enjoyment of the water. Now she can not only walk around the pool without holding my hand, she can completely submerge her head (though she didn't think that was nearly as scary as walking around in the pool), float with her floaties and kick her feet AND (drumroll please....) go down the waterslide! The first time she only wanted to go down 1 time. The next time we went to the pool, she only wanted to go down 2 times. The NEXT time she wanted to go down "fifty hundred times becuase I WUV it!" She still as a slight look of panic as she comes down the last few feet, but that is slowly relaxing to a (almost) smile. She says that next time she won't make a grown up go with her, but will let someone wait at the bottom to catch her. We'll see how this goes!