Malia 2.0

Today is Malia’s second birthday. To commemorate this grand occasion, here are a few tidbits about Malia:

Her favorite book is “The Foot Book.” We have read it about fifty-billion times. But it is one of those books that I don’t mind reading fifty-billion times. It is Dr. Seuss after all.

Her favorite movie is “Tangowed” because it has a “pincess” named “Punzeled.” I’ve shown her Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and she was…underwhelmed. In fact, she told me, “Tangowed better.”

She talks, and talks, and talks. She is using three and four words in sentences and the sentences are plentiful. She is getting pretty good and telling us what she wants, which is helpful because…

…she can throw a mighty temper tantrum when she wants to. She will lay down on the floor and cry and cry and scream and cry some more. We just ignore her and after a while she decides she is done, gets up, and moves on.

She loves to be outside.

She has discovered that the library has lots of books that she can bring home with her. And she’s happy about it.

She has a thing for shoes. A couple of months ago I took her to Payless to get some new Sunday shoes. She got really excited and walked down the aisles pointing at all the shoes and saying, “Cute! Cute! Cute!” She is definitely my child.

She really likes bows. Whether in her hair or on her clothes, she really, really likes bows. She’s very girly.

She is a pretty picky eater. She is mostly picky where vegetables and meat is concerned. She’ll eat hot dogs, chicken nuggets and the occasion slice of lunch meat, but any other meat is a challenge. As far as veggies are concerned, she loves cucumbers, fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob. Other than that, veggie eating is pretty sparse. But she eats fruit of all kinds and she eats cheese and yogurt in plentiful amounts so I figure she is probably getting most of what she needs anyway. She is also picky about random things like macaroni. She won’t eat mac and cheese and she won’t eat the orange and green pasta in the tricolored rotini but she loves plain macaroni and spaghetti. In the junk food arena she is a fan of pizza, fries, mellows (marshmallows) and chocolate. And, like me, she just can’t resist a good cookie.

She sings during sacrament meeting, loudly. She has to have a hymn book and she only sings when everyone else does.At home she sings whenever she wants. Favorite songs include Old MacDonald, Popcorn Popping, I Love to See the Temple, I Am a Child of God, and the Itsy-bitsy Spider. And lately she has been singing, “Birthday to me, birthday to me…”

She can count to five or six although she doesn’t know what it means yet. Her favorite number is 13. When I try to get her to count lately, she’ll fill in whatever blank with “tirteen.”

She loves nursery. It took her a couple of months to decide it was okay, but now she is all about the toys and the snacks and the friends. During sacrament meeting when she starts to feel like she has been there long enough (usually right after the sacrament), she will look up at us and say, “Nursery time!” She feels it keenly when she misses nursery. When she had a cold a couple of weeks ago and had to stay home, she cried and cried because she wanted to go to nursery. When Kevin and Daniel came home after church, she ran and got her church shoes because she thought that meant it was time to go. Then she cried some more: “Nursery! (sob, sob) Nursery!”

She has been sleeping in her big girl bed at night for a week now which is really great considering she has been sick for about half that time. She still wants to sleep in the crib for her naps, but we’re making progress.

For some reason she thinks it is super fun to hang out in my shower. This morning she made herself comfy and read a book while I was getting dressed.

This evening we had a quiet celebration at home. Malia was having a grumpy evening and when it was time to blow out the candles she said, “Matthew do it.” She ate the marshmallow flower and the gum drop off the cupcake and left the rest. While she was eating, her nursery teacher came by and brought her some cookies so she had one of those as well.

She was reluctant to open presents until she got the first one open and discovered a tiny princess doll from Daniel. Then she was all smiles.

Matthew got her a princess iPhone. Nathan gave her crayons and a pencil. Kevin and I gave her some puzzles, her long awaited “Tangled” sheets for her big girl bed, and a cradle and quilt for her baby doll. The cradle was mine when I was little. My dad was in the navy when I was very young and he was stationed in the Philippines for two years. During the time that we lived there, we had a Filipino maid named Gloria and a Filipino yard boy named Zaldi (I have no idea how to spell that name so I’m taking a guess). Zaldi was an amateur carpenter as well. He made a number of things that I remember including this baby doll cradle for me and a big doll house for my sister Patti. The cradle was originally bright green. Kev repaired it, sanded it down and repainted it. I had planned to stencil some designs on it, but with the craziness that has been the past week, it did not happen. I’ll get it done later.

(Random comment on this picture: While we were living in the Philippines there was a fire in the jungle behind our house. My mom took pictures of everything we had in the house just in case they were needed for insurance purposes. So that is why I have a picture of the cradle-full of junk it would seem-with no people in sight.)

So overall Malia had a pretty quiet birthday. A pretty quiet anything is a change from how things have been of late, so it was nice.

What Is It About My Kids and Head Wounds?

Are they genetically predisposed to cracking their noggins against hard things and ending up with gory gashes in the middle of their foreheads? I'm thinking they must be because as of last night, three of my four children have the mark...the one that indicates a head injury and a trip to the instacare/E.R.

Daniel's head cracking experience was in my preblogging days. He was in first grade. He slipped on some black ice on the playground at school and whacked his head on the blacktop. The school called me and when I arrived I discovered that his skin had just popped right open. The wound looked almost round it was yawning so widely. So off to the urgent care we went and he ended up with a hand full of stitches. I don't remember how many, but he's got a scar. Since I wasn't blogging then, I was not as macabre about taking pictures of injured children so the most famous head shot we have is the one taken in primary a couple of weeks after the incident. It is the one they used all year on bookmarks, handouts, the bulletin board, etc. Don't you just dig the Spider-Man bandaid?

Daniel-Jan. 7, 2008

Matthew's Humpty Dumpty moment happened when he was 2 1/2. I was a dedicated blogger by then so the whole nerve wracking incident was well documented.

 Matthew-Oct. 16, 2009

So who is the third head wound recipient, you may ask? Take a guess. You have a 50% chance of being right. You might guess that Nathan has joined his brothers in the mushed head club...but you would be wrong.

Yup. My not quite but so so close to 2 year old is the winner, although I can't say this is a prize that one should aspire to earn. Last night Kevin and I were downstairs chatting when we heard a thump from upstairs. Immediately following that, Nathan starting shrieking, "Dad! Dad!" It was the sound of sheer panic which meant, of course, that I immediately began to go into panic mode. Kevin ran up the stairs with me close behind, scenarios of horror already running through my mind. We found Nathan and Malia on the floor in the kitchen, both crying pretty hysterically. Malia had a gash and a huge dent that looked suspiciously like the sharp edge of the counter on her forehead. Kev headed off to the instacare with Malia since I was in no shape to drive safely just then.

Just because I know I haven't mentioned it yet, Kevin started a new job two weeks ago which means we have had a change in insurance. The new insurance cards have not arrived yet so I got on the Internet, found the necessary info and texted it to Kev. At that point I was awfully glad that I had spent three hours earlier in the day making phone calls and making sure we has access to the website and the temporary cards.

Once that task was done, my attention turned to Nathan. He was a wreck. We have to remind him frequently that he is Malia's brother and not her parent so that might give you an idea of how much he dotes on her. He was absolutely devastated that he had hurt her, so that was when I started trying to figure out what had happened. It seems that Nathan had been helping Malia wash her hands. When he was getting her down off the stool (and then flying her around because it is fun) he tripped, on his shoelaces he thinks, and fell. However, he was so panicky about Malia that he didn't realize that he had a big goose egg on his forehead and his knee was swollen. In fact, he doesn't even remember hitting his head because he was so focused on Malia. It wasn't until ten or fifteen minutes after Kev had rushed out the door that Nathan realized his head hurt. So there was need of some reassurance that it had been an accident and that everything would be okay. And we applied some ice to his head since by then he realized he had quite a headache.

Kev kept me updated regularly and the outcome was that her brain didn't actually get mushed at all and her gash was shallow enough that they were able to just clean it and glue it closed. As per instructions we watched her closely for about four hours after the incident and all seemed just as it should be. She was actually pretty pleased because she got to stay up late and watch "Tangled."

This morning Malia woke up acting as if nothing had changed and all was well until she decided to pick at the dermabond on her head. She said, "Owie." I looked over and realized that she had picked half the glue off her head and it was bleeding again. After a couple of phone calls to our friendly neighborhood healthcare providers, I was headed back to the instacare so they could clean and reseal the wound. Luckily for us, everything looked good enough that they decided to just clip off the section of dermabond that she had picked off and put steri-strips on it. They used lots of adhesive and lots of steri-strips so hopefully she won't be able to pick those off as well.

Malia did great with all the medical care. She didn't cry or fight and they didn't have to strap her down or anything. And she clearly has no lingering negative affects other than the cut. I think I'm more traumatized by the whole thing than she is...

A Pox Upon Our House

We've been sick...all of us. Three weeks ago Nathan came down with a cold, a pretty nasty one. Within a week, we all had it. Just as we were finishing up with the cold, Malia got sick with something else icky. I won't give details because it is all pretty disgusting, but it was not pleasant. That was Friday. I got sick on Saturday and Sunday morning Kevin, Daniel and Nathan jumped on the bandwagon. Matthew held out until Sunday evening.

This is the first time in my memory that all of us have been sick all at the same time. We've had all the boys sick at once before and we've had times where we took turns, but this is the first time we've all been down and out on the same day. Not fun. I think we're in recovery mode now, but we're planning to hunker down for a bit longer and try not to share the misery.

The germfest is definitely my very least favorite part of sending my kids back to school.

Journal Jar #4-3 Pet Peeves

1-Lateness. I’m one of those people who have difficulty understanding how some people can be late to every single event ever in their whole entire lives. You would think that they would clue in and maybe plan a little in advance so they can arrive on time. Because as one of the usually on-timers, it can be very frustrating and a huge waste of my own time (which, contrary to their beliefs, is just as valuable as their time) to sit around waiting on the perpetually late. I feel like I’m late if I’m not on schedule to arrive ten minutes early, so I know that being on time can happen on a regular basis. Yes, there are times when life just craps all over my plans and I end up being late, but it is the exception not the rule.

2-Rudeness. No, you really don't own the road. And no, I'm not to blame just because you are either 1)having a crappy day or 2)just a total jerk.

A fine example of rudeness happened five or six years ago. I was shopping with several children in tow, I think I had Matthew in the cart and Nathan trailing along behind. I turned around the corner of an aisle, peeking back to make sure Nathan was behind me at the same time, and accidentally bumped into the back of a woman with my shopping cart. I felt terrible and apologized profusely. However, she didn’t even take time to listen to my apology. She just lit into me, hollering that it was the third time that I’d hit her. Ummm, no. It was the first time. It had been an honest accident and I had apologized sincerely. Nevertheless, she felt she had the right to yell at me in the middle of the store in front of my kids.

I’m not perfect, but I do try my best to be polite. I say please and thank you. When I am driving I let people in when they are trying to merge. I don’t butt in line. I don’t assume that I’m more important than everyone else. And when I’m in the wrong, I apologize.

Seriously, if everyone would just treat others with the kindness and concern that they feel they personally deserve, the world would be a much nicer place. Remember that famous little golden rule? There's a reason it is so famous. Unfortunately, it seems to be less and less popular as time goes by... (And when people sincerely apologize, accept it for crying out loud!)

3-Saving seats at church with scriptures, lesson manuals, etc. when there is no warm body in sight! If at least one person is there I don't mind, but rows and rows of printed materials preventing people who arrive on time from finding someplace to sit really bugs me. And it bugs me even more when the people saving the rows are then late for church! Seriously, if having a great seat is that important to you, get there early…like I do!

Open Sesame

Malia has figured out how to open doors. I realized she had acquired this particular skill when I turned around and found her happily searching for gloves and a hat in the coat closet. She was mightily pleased when she found a matching pair of mittens and got them on all by herself.

She can’t do all the doors yet, just some depending on what kind of doorknob they have. But it won’t be long. She can already open the door to the fruit room which is where the food storage lives. I may need to move the marshmallows and chocolate chips to a higher shelf. She can’t quite manage the pantry door which is good since she knows that is where the crackers live and she is always hoping for a snack just as I’m cooking dinner since that is when she is getting hungry. At least she isn’t allergic to half of what is in there. That makes the door opening skill an inconvenience and not a nightmare like it was with Matthew.

Of course, it may turn into a nightmare if she figures out that she can open the door to the bathroom (we have already thrown away half a dozen of Matthew's toothbrushes because one of the boys left the door open and Malia decided to brush her teeth) and Nathan and Matthew's room (that is where all the fun junk lives and she loves to get in there and wreak havoc). It's a shame that I only have one of the good doorknob covers left, the ones that you can't buy anymore. All three of my other kids figured out how to work the most common doorknob covers in about a week. So it could be...interesting.

Rejoice!

The lunch box is found! When I asked Matthew how school was, all he told me was that he found his lunchbox. There was not another single thing in the entire day that he deemed worthy to tell me. When I asked where his lunchbox was, he told me he found it in his lunch tote but it wasn't there yesterday. That tells me that his teacher helped track it down. Thank goodness for the people who want to teach first grade. They are like mighty miracle workers in the eyes of the six-year-olds (and occasionally their parents).

Does Iron Man have GPS?

Today was Matthew's second day of school. He came home completely devastated because his beloved Iron Man lunchbox with the Iron Man water bottle inside is lost. I tried to reassure him that when lunchboxes are not in the lunch tote when it comes back to the classroom they almost always show up in another teacher's lunch tote, but he was not to be consoled. Nathan helped him talk to the office and his teacher before they came home and I've already gotten an e-mail from his teacher letting me know they will search in the morning, but in the meantime he has to pack his lunch in his old lunch box and Toy Story is so preschool...

He is a little puddle of sadness.

Better Than I Had Hoped

When all the wards in our stake were re-organized last year I was pretty unsure about how things were going to be for my family. In particular, I was concerned about Daniel. He is not a terribly social creature and both the boys who he played with and who could get him to come out of his solitary happiness were no longer in our ward. For the first year after the change, Daniel pretty much hung out alone. And then he turned twelve and joined the deacons quorum on our ward. In the past six months, he is no longer alone all the time. The other boys in his quorum call to invite him to attend parties and go on fishing trips. They show up at the door to get him to come hang out. They give him the inside scoop about middle school so he is more excited than nervous. They include him in their comings and goings and he enjoys their company.

They showed up at the door again this evening to invite him to a spontaneous Studio C (For those who don't know, Studio C is a comedy show on BYUTV) marathon and it made me realize that while the ward change has been okay for the rest of us, it has been really good for Daniel.

I’m so grateful.