Jolly Old St. Nicholas

This morning was our ward Christmas party.  In this ward it is traditional to have a breakfast so we headed over to the church for pancakes, eggs, sausage, and cinnamon rolls.  Matthew and I brought our own cinnamon rolls and juice since we are the dietarily restricted ones in the family. (At least mine is only temporary.  I cannot tell you how much I miss cheese...)  In addition to breakfast, they had a service project (cleaning nursery toys) and a family activity (making a family home evening kit).  It was different than the usual food and program party that we usually get and I really enjoyed it.

The highlight of the morning, of course, was a visit with Santa.  Nathan declined to sit on his lap, standing across the room and grinning at him instead.  Matthew would not sit on Santa's lap either, but after some convincing he agreed to at least whisper in Santa's ear what he wants for Christmas.

Matthew wants a dinosaur train with the stations just like on Dinosaur Train.  I'm pretty sure Santa may have something else in mind, but Matthew does have a birthday coming up so we'll just have to see how it all turns out.  Malia didn't cry when we introduced her to Santa, but the look on her face tells me she wasn't too sure about the whole thing.  I'm pretty sure all she wants for Christmas is a clean diaper, a full tummy and plenty of attention.

Smarter Than Your Average...Dinosaur?

Matthew has been really into Dinosaur Train lately.  This PBS kids show is available on Netflix and he watches the available episodes over and over and over…but I really can’t complain because he is learning a ton.  He walks around the house singing the songs from the show and is constantly telling us great things that he has learned.  (Seriously, he’ll walk up to me and say, “Did you know that there are a lot of mammals that are nocturnal?”  And the crazy part is that he knows exactly what he is talking about and can explain it to you.)  A couple of weeks ago he got out the hole punch and a bunch of paper so he could punch “train tickets” and play dinosaur train with me.  Just for the record, it is really hard to fold laundry with itty bitty t-rex arms.  But at least he let me bring the laundry on the dinosaur train, so I really can’t complain.  Besides, we had fun.

This evening while I was making dinner, Matthew was trying to teach me to play “hyper hypothesis” like they do on dinosaur train. (It kind of freaks me out that not only does my 4 year old know the word “hypothesis,” but he can define it correctly and knows that the plural is “hypotheses” not hypothesises.)  Apparently the point is to make a big guess as quickly as you can.  So I started throwing things at him, trying to figure out how to play the game. “I have a hypothesis that Matthew will clean up his lunch.  I have a hypothesis that dinner will be really yummy.  Like that?”  Apparently I was doing it wrong, so I tried again:  “I have a hypothesis that Daniel will grow up to be taller than me.”  Without even blinking, Matthew shot back, “No!  That’s just a fact!”

I laughed.  Hard.  Still giggle when I think about it.  What a smarty farty pants.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Daniel Dear!

How in the world did Daniel get to be 11 already?  I certainly don’t feel old enough to have an 11 year old.  Of course, the gray hairs that I’ve begun to spot would seem to bely that fact.  And since I have high school friends who have children in college, I guess I really must be old enough.  But the time is passing far too quickly…

Daniel has passed the years of Musical Chairs and Pin the Tail on the Donkey and a perfect party for him consists of pizza, a movie, and a bunch of friends.  And while I truly appreciate the ease of planning and executing such a party, I’m most grateful that he has a circle of wonderful friends that he loves to spend time with.  I had a tight little group of friends like that when I was growing up and there are not many things that I’ve wanted more for my children than some “through thick and thin” kind of friends.

I also love that Daniel has inherited his parents’ wacky sense of humor.  The movie he chose to watch was “Galaxy Quest” and when I was at a loss for how to make a Galaxy Quest cake, Kev suggested we use rock candy to make rock monsters.  I made and frosted the cupcakes and Daniel created the monsters.

Daniel’s friends and family know him well and he received an abundance of Star Wars Lego, some K’nex, a remote control car and a build-it-yourself solar-powered robot inchworm which he stayed up until 11:00 p.m. to build the night he received it.

When we made the cake for Daniel’s celebration with family, Daniel very generously left half the cake monster-free so that Matthew would be able to eat some (the candy had a cross-contamination warning for peanuts).  For those who don’t know, Garignack is the name of the rock monster in Galaxy Quest.  I have no idea how to spell it.  I was just making it up as I went along.

So happy birthday, kid.  I have a feeling that if I blink, you just might grow up without my permission.

Happiness Is...

Malia slept for nine hours last night, which means that I also slept for nine hours last night.

Both of us woke up happy this morning.

This Car Has My Favorite Song!

Yesterday we bought a new car.  In addition to the fact that our five-passenger ’96 Pathfinder could no longer fit our entire family, it was beginning to act squirrelly.  When I spotted wisps of smoke curling out from under the hood as I pulled it into the parking lot of the car dealership that last time, I was good and ready to let that car go.  We have had it for twelve years and it has served us well, but it was time for something bigger…and newer.

I often joke about computers and gadgets thinking they are smarter than I am.  With sixteen computers on board, my new car probably is smarter than I am.  It monitors everything from tire pressure and gas consumption to outside air temperature and road conditions.  This morning the car told me “Ice possible, drive with caution.”  It turns the headlights on for you when it gets dark and turns them off when it gets light again.  It has a lane change blinker that blinks four times and then turns itself off and although I think it is retarded, it is probably handy for the blinker impaired.  You know who I’m talking about: the people who signal to change lanes and 60 miles later are still letting everyone know that they changed lanes half an hour ago.  This car takes so much responsibility off the driver that I wonder if I could just lay the seat back and take a nap while the car drives me to Hobby Lobby…

I still know how to drive, but I really don’t know how to run this car.  There are about two hundred buttons on the console.  And there are versions of this car that are fancier than the one we bought!  I’m actually going to have to read the instruction manual rather than just sitting in the driver’s seat and pushing all the buttons to see what they do.  Although that could be fun to, just as long as I could figure out how to fix anything I screwed up.

And those of you who know Matthew well won’t be surprised that he coined the phrase that I’ve used as the title of this post.  As we were driving the car home for the very first time, Matthew happily buckled into the third row seat, Kev turned on a Rockapella CD and Matthew exclaimed, “This car has my favorite song!”

A New Do

Malia’s hair has gotten long enough that if I comb it down super flat when it is wet, it will actually lay down pretty well.  It makes her look even more like Matthew than she already does, but it also gives me the opportunity to use the itty bitty hair clips I found at the Walmart.  Have you ever noticed that completely ordinary things are infinitely cuter if they are little?  I think the itty bitty hair clips fall into that category.

I don’t think the faux-hawk is a thing of the past, however.  I still think she looks pretty darn cute with her hair sticking straight up.

Living in a House Full of Science Dorks is Fun

It’s cold outside.  Guess how I know?  I just came in from outside where all of us were able to see Jupiter and all four of its moons through Daniel’s telescope.  It was pretty cool!  Daniel was able to see individual craters on the moon as well.  Santa brought this $35 telescope to Daniel last year and Kev and I added some lenses and a finder scope for Daniel’s birthday last year.  It has worked better than I expected it to for the price and it has been totally fun.  This would be one of the few perks about it getting dark so freakin’ early.  Daniel can go out and stargaze and still get to bed on time.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Today was Malia’s blessing day.  She got to wear the same dress I wore when I was blessed.  It was considerably yellowed due to the fact that I wore it nearly 38 years ago, but a good soak in oxyclean brought it to if not quite white, at least a very respectable ivory.  She’s also sporting the same hairdo I had.

(Shauna 1974)

(Malia 2011)

She was very well behaved during the blessing, not crying at all.  Of course, it probably helped that Kev told all of our priesthood holders not to bounce her like crazy.  And she managed to keep her white dress clean all day which is quite a feat for a two month old.

Malia is a little charmer and has quite a few of us completely wrapped around her finger.  As always, her brothers simply can’t get enough.  Nathan was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him hold Malia as she was being passed around.  I told him that we get her every day so it would be nice if we let everyone else have a turn with her.  I hope he still likes her as much when she is a few years older and following him around…

It was wonderful to have so many of our family members here to celebrate Malia’s special day with us.  We ate good food, had good laughs, enjoyed each other’s company and only had to turn the water to the house back on once.  (There are a lot of little boys in my family and this is not the first time we’ve had to make a dash to the basement to see which knob they’ve turned.)  It seems like these occasions when we all get together don’t happen often enough!