More new words

Sorry for the dullness of this post, I recognize that these kind of things are really only interesting to the parents, but this blog is as much for my own personal records as it is to keep in touch with friends and family so I won't feel bad if you ignore these updates.

Trevor's vocabulary growth spurt continued this week. In the last 7 days he's learned:

stop- a very handy word when dealing with a sister that sometimes loves just a little too much
book-"bup"
up
please- peas
kisses- "kickes"
cute- Love this one...he was caring around a teddy bear this morning proclaiming it "cute, cute cute" to any that would hear.

So, so fun. Love this age..so long as he isn't destroying my house at any given moment.

First Talk

Lynette gave her first talk yesterday. She was supposed to give it 3 weeks ago but after posting the reminder on my fridge I promptly forgot about it until after we came home from church the next week- oops! I called and asked a redo and the primary presidency kindly agreed. We had two more weeks to work on it, since Stake Conference was the following week, and so every day we would just work a little bit on it- memorizing 2 lines at a time until she had it all down and the practicing it every day. This was how it went:

Heavenly Father and Jesus choose prophets to speak to us on earth. Prophets tell us what God wants us to do. Adam was the first prophet. The scriptures tell us about other prophets like Nephi, Noah, and Moses. They helped people choose the right. Joseph Smith was a prophet in our time. He helped bring us the Book of Mormon. Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today. He teaches us about prayer, baptism, keeping the commandments, and to love Jesus. I am thankful for prophets. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I wanted Lynette to memorize it for three reasons, 1- Because I knew she could do it- she inherited her father's ability to memorize (though I would like to add I had to remind him of his mother's birthday- why is that?). 2- Because I knew she'd enjoy it- she loves memorizing things- you should see her "read" books to us- its a hoot. And 3- Because I knew if I just whispered in her ear for her to repeat she would get shy and mumble it so softly no one could hear it. She really did enjoy the process, and we only practiced once or twice a day so she wouldn't tire of it. At first we used picture and a felt board, but eventually didn't need that anymore. When the moment of truth came I was pretty nervous because I still worried she'd decide last minute she didn't want to do it. I should learn never to underestimate her. When they called her name she marched right on up and started rattling off her talk so fast you could hardly understand it. I only had to prompt her once to speak up. She was fantastic. I was so proud. Of course, as all toddlers do, while she was speaking she was moving around a bit and playing with her dress, but it just added to the charm.

The one really sad thing about it was that Michael missed the whole thing, and for a very dumb reason. He was on-call the night before but still managed to get there in time donned in his scrubbs and with his hair rumpled. He was waiting in the back with me and decided to use the bathroom- thinking there was still a good 10 minutes before her talk. Not a good gamble. Not two minutes after he left they called her up and Lynette jumped up and started speaking before I had the chance to ask them to postpone. I felt really bad about that. She did perform it for him later, and also to my parents over the phone- to their delight. It was a fun experience. I'm so proud of my little girl.

From the mouth of Babes

This week I think Trev hit his "word explosion". Up until this point he's learned a good 12 or 13 words. This week he increased his vernacular by about 50%. This week he learned:

goose- "goo"
duck
kick
more
oww
Thank you- "gee goo"

Its been such an exciting week with all these little gems spilling out of him. It took a while for me to pick up on the 'thank you'- its a word no one but a parent would understand, but he's been so consistent with it I know its legit. He says it not only when I ask him to but when I give him food, toy or a kiss. Such a polite little boy! I remember Lynette hitting her explosion at about this age. I remember at 15 months thinking she has only 3 more months until nursery but her vocabulary just seemed so limited for her to be in nursery. Sure enough a month later her vocabulary just took off exponentially and by the time she got in nursery she was speaking quite well. Its so fun to watch kids grow. I can't wait to see what they learn next!

Taken for Granted

*Warning: Random long-winded musing ahead. Proceed with caution.*

Recently I have been pushing myself to finish this wretched quiet book I spent way too much money on for materials and pattern 3 years ago. I've been working on a page that would include a simple little road track to drive little cars on. After hours of working on it I threw up my hands in frustration because it looked so lousy. It honestly looked like something a grade-school kid would put together. "Why?" you ask- not because it wasn't simple...because it was. But because I do not have one artistic bone in my body. I cannot cut, draw, or sew in a straight line to save my life. I know 8-year-olds who can draw better me- no that's not quite acturate- pretty much EVERY 8-year-old can draw better than me. I cannot paint, sculpt, draw, frost cupcakes nicely- heck I don't even like the way I write my own signature. And this is a frustrating thing for me because I CARE. I love pretty things. I think I have a pretty good eye for nice looking things but I cannot for the life of me recreate them. I've taken art and sewing classes, and asked for tutoring but to no avail. I look at things people have made and am in AWE at the simple beauty and the thing that blows me away most of all is how natural it is to them. They don't recognize the incredible talent and skill they have- but its like magic to me. Its just amazing to me how they can take it for granted so easily.

It is only recently that this really started to bother me, because now that I have kids and excessive amounts of free time; I want to use that time to make cute, fun things for my kids. Growing up, it wasn't that big of a deal, especially since I had the comfort of know I can create something nice- music. This was my one consolation. And thinking of this made me question- do I take my musical ability for granted? I can honestly say I do not take my singing for granted. I spent many years training and working on it and I still feel I am far from achieving the level I could- and even farther, much farther, from achieving the ability I would like to have. But there are some things I do take for granted. Being able to feel and keep a steady beat is definately one of them. It boggles my mind that some people can't feel the beat- to me its like being able to see the color red. Its just there- how can you not feel it? I once tried to teach some primary kids how to conduct a simple 4 beat pattern. I knew it would be a challenge but I had no idea how difficult it would end up being. In fact, it was a complete failure. I tried to scale back and just do a 2 beat patter- but still no good. They could not feel the downbeat and nothing I could do could teach that. They still loved "conducting" a.k.a holding the stick and waving it in the air- but not one of them could do it to the beat. I also do not get how someone can't hear pitches- and, no, I'm not talking the micropitches of being able to sing something perfectly in tune- but just the "this note is higher than this note" kind of thing. I cannot comprehend not being able to hear if something is high or low. I take that for granted.
So my question is: what do you take for granted? And what gift or talent of others do you lack and feel they take for granted?

First Haircut

So again, this is a bit of catch-up, but since February was only filled with sickness and staying at home waiting for spring to show up, its going to have to do. I loved Trevor's curly locks, they were so cute. Michael, however, thought he looked like a girl. After many gentle nudges I agreed that it was finally time to cut Trevor's hair. I was really nervous about it, having vivid memories of my young brothers screaming and crying as my dad held them down while my mom cut their hair. We avoided this issue with my new best friend 'Baby Einstein'. Generally I'm not totally in love propping my babies up in front of the t.v. but this seemed a valid excuse to do so, and let me tell you, I'm glad I did. Both Trev and Lynette were transfixed, sitting there, giggling when the snake puppet came out to yell "blah". I had no idea how to cut hair so fine and thin- but it ended out okay and no tears were shed- win win!

One last fond look at the mop top.

Trevor's most intelligent look. Can we say "baby drug"?
Thank you Baby Einstein.

Effects of Baby Einstein still wearing off here, but what do you think of the end result? Not bad, eh?