Why playing battleship with Mister is important

I had J bring home take-out yesterday so I could play battleship with Mister instead of making dinner. I had promised to play with him Monday, but after putting H down for a nap, helping with homework, dinner prep, feeding H while dinner cooked, there was no time for battleship, a fact which Mister did not understand: "But you promised!" So Mommy-guilt overtook Mommy- frugality, and we broke out the game board and played while we waited for our food to arrive. I decided I should do this more often for the following reasons:

First, sometimes you just cannot put a price on getting a break from dinner prep/clean-up.

Second, I learned all kinds of school-related things from my reserved child while playing:

• Mister can't wait to change seats at school so he doesn't have to sit by Cheyenne anymore because she puts her arm on his desk, "even though I told her like about 80 times not to."
• Mister's favorite part of school yesterday was recess because they played War. Now I know all of the rules for playing War.
• Mister's worst part of the day was missing the reading exercise at school.

Wait a second.

"Why did you miss the reading exercise?" I asked.

"Because I was crying all morning."

"Why were you crying all morning?"

"Because I left my backpack at home and it had my red folder and my lunch in it."

"Yes, but I told you I would bring that to you before lunch," I reminded him.

He looked at me. "But you don't always do what you say you will. Like battleship."

I looked at him. He was right. I don't always do what I say I will. Because there are like about 80 things I'm supposed to do every day and never enough time or energy to complete all of them.

"But something as important as your lunch," I said. "I would never let you go without lunch. And besides, I usually get around to doing what I say I'm going to do. Like battleship. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said. Thanks for the vote of confidence, buddy.

So third, I need to do this more often to reinforce my trustworthiness in the eyes of my children!

1. Clean carpets, 2. Warm afternoons, 3. A quiet house

Bad Hair Day, Bad Head Day

Last Wednesday, I was getting Mister and Sweetie breakfast and little H was kickin' it in his bumbo seat on top of the kitchen island. Yes, I'm aware that I should not have the bumbo seat on the island. There's a large warning on the side. But really, who pays attention to warnings these days? And H is so happy sitting up there where he can see everything going on. He's a center-of-attention kind of guy.

To make a long story short, I should have paid attention to the warning because little H twisted out suddenly and fell off the island onto the hardwood floor on his head. I tried to get there. I could see it happening as it happened. But I couldn't go fast enough.

After a lot of crying and a little sleeping, he opened his eyes and they looked strange. He just wasn't focusing right and he was still making a terrible crying noise that wasn't really a cry. So a good friend took Sweetie. J and I took H to the emergency room, where we waited and waited. By the time we saw the doctor, H was his smiling self again. They took x-rays of his skull and sent us home, saying all was well. Less than 30 min after being home, though, the pediatric neurosurgeon called to tell me all was not well. There is a "lucentsy" on his skull. Not a clinical fracture, but we needed to get a cat scan to check it out. In the end, the cat scan revealed a large indentation in his skull that the ped neurosurgeon will be watching for the next year to make sure it heals properly. So I guess in the future, H can blame any insufficiencies on his mother, who let her baby fall on his head.

Here's little H now, who, after suffering through a bad head day isn't letting a bad hair day bother him in the least.

1. priesthood blessings, 2. good friends who take my kids, 3. good health

Has it already been 6 months?

Six months of little sleep.

Six months of smiles.

Six months of love.

Six months of little H!

1. A bigger perspective, if I can hold onto it, 2. The phone 3. The Ensign

When it rains in the desert

we thoroughly enjoy it!

1. Weather!! 2. Hot bread, hot stew 3. A good book and a blanket

Sledding Action

I posted a bunch of these on my family's blog, but I have to share a few here too so we can remember the fun we had sledding in Utah over Christmas. We went sledding on 3 different days. This was from the last day on the hill and jump that my brothers, my sister-in-law, and J made the previous visit.

The sledding hill/run

J, taking a test run

Here comes Sweetie!

Oh no! There goes Sweetie!

Post-fall, hanging out with a sleeping baby H and I while she nurses her wounds:

Giving it another shot with Dad:

Here comes Mister:

I took H down one time, but not on the steep hill with the jump

My brother and 2 of his boys take on the jump

My other brother and his wife:

H, hanging out with his cousin, both stylin' in their baby blue snow suits, which used to be my brothers' in the 80s.

Thanks for the great time, Utah cousins, siblings, and grandparents!

Christmas Gifts: A Sensory Experience

Should you be walking through our house and hear a whoosh and feel your hair stir, it's probably a member of the paper airplane fleet, being launched from the top of the stairs:

Should you walk into Mister and Sweetie's bedroom to check on them before you go to bed and you feel as though you suddenly walked on small, sharp rocks, it's probably stray lego pieces leftover from building these:

Should you go downstairs in the middle of the night to get a drink and see shiny, beady eyes, it's probably MaryLyn, waiting for school to start:

Should you smell cookies being baked one at a time for 2 hours, it's probably Sweetie making family home evening treats with her Easy Bake Oven:

Should you hear shouts of "Hit!", it may not actually be fighting children (for once), but a rousing game of battleship:

And should your ears twitch and you strangely feel as though you are being watched and your every move is being noted, it may be the two spies recording your actions on Mister's new clipboard:

1. Creative play 2. A long weekend 3. Nowhere to go and nothing pressing to do

By the Numbers: Christmas Vacation and Aftermath

Days in Utah after Christmas: 8

Hours in the car driving to and from Utah: 25

Hours H cried in the car driving to and from Utah: I'm trying to block this out so I'm willing to go again

High temperature the day we arrived: 24

Bowling games: 1; laser tag: 1, mini-golf: 1; movies: 4

Sledding outings: 4

Number of adults, lying prone, that Mister cleared on his sled while going off of the jump: 4

Average bedtime for J and I: 1am

Homemade cookies eaten while there: dozens and dozens (by me alone)

Number of lego pieces assembled by Mister over the break: 1139

Clothing items I purchased New Years' Day with the $75 given by my parents: 9 (thanks, Mom and Dad! Hooray for sales!)

Days back from Utah: 5

High temperatures the day we arrived home: 71 (that's more like it!)

Days back in school: 3

Days late for school: 2

Times I told children to get dressed this morning: 7 (really, shouldn't this be intuitive? that you don't sit around in your underwear? for one, it's chilly in the am)

Average number of times H gets up each night since the beginning of December: 4 (apparently he missed the pre-earth life class on appropriate sleep habits for a newborn vs. 5-month old)

Days exercised since returning: 3 (hooray for New Years' Resolutions!)

Cookies left in the batch Sweetie and I made yesterday: 0 (New Years' Resolutions? What New Years' Resolutions?!)

Number of falls Sweetie took before learning to ride a bike without training wheels yesterday: 0 (go Sweetie!)

Days Sweetie will cry for loosing books/song privileges tonight: approximately 29.565 ("all the days of my life")

Days it's taken me to put down Christmas decor and unpack: 5 and counting!

1. Sleep, 2. Home, 3. Health