Tell You [a] Little Story

Abby posted this picture which inspired me to steal it and say a little somethin or other about my baby. Calvin: is 14 months today! is not in the least bit interested in walking is by far the last of my children to walk can take a step with his right foot, but is ever so much afraid to lift up his left foot, so when I force him to try to walk, he pivots around in a circle a little bit, then gives up and crawls like a madman has the greatest toothy grin, which I have yet to capture on camera (bad mom!) sleeps like a champ says, "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom." a lot also sometimes says, "Daddy" but that's about the whole vocabulary upon finding a barrette or hair tie on the ground, immediately takes it to Norah where he fiercely insists on putting it in her hair. If she tries to take it, he resists until she lets him be her hairstylist grew out of his stranger anxiety mode in the last month or two and will now be non-cry-ey and even tender with other adults. G...

It's not every day we get to make calls to the furnace guy, the plumber, the garage door repairman, and the yard guy. All! In one day, lucky us! Fixing broken stuff, all of it. Good thing we gave a bunch of money to our former yard guy to redo our backyard and he has been AWOL for 8 months. Actually, not good thing. That was sarcasm. In other news, I went in to help out in Isaac's Chinese class today for the first time. How awesome is it that all these 6 and 7 year olds can count to 100, recite poems, do the hokey pokey, write characters, do addition problems, and sing songs in a language they knew nothing about a few months ago? Not sarcasm this time, it really is awesome! I am taking advantage of a Chinese instructor who is giving some parents lessons in the language and even though it starts at 9:30 on Monday nights and I never want to go out in the cold at that hour to go, I'm always really glad I did. It's amazing to learn new things. The kids today were du...

-- my husband is happy -- I feel safe (perhaps naively so, but I feel safe nonetheless) -- my neighborhood feels like the center of the universe in some ways -- I experienced few public discussions about my changing body when I was pregnant -- no dirty looks at restaurants or grocery stores when all the kids are in tow -- the mountains are pretty -- the summertime weather is ideal -- living so close to BYU offers much in the way of culture, sports, enlightened thought, et cetera -- everybody comes here to visit -- my children don't hear a lot of bad language at school -- I know and love all of my neighbors — really, all of them -- much parental volunteerism at school results in good opportunities for my kids

Do I ever watch tv? It's a rare, rare occasion. Have I watched tv at night since the finale of LOST? Negatory, I cannot remember a single time. As a good citizen of this fine community and country, is there anything to do but watch election results trickle in? There is nothing else to do. What do I want to see happen if Mike Lee wins? When Mike Lee wins, I want my friends Marcus and Michelle to be appointed as grand rulers of something important and festive and magical. Am I dreading writing a big term paper for my South African history class? No doiphy, Ralph. Should Marcus and Michelle be appointed as Rulers of Classes That Can't Make Their Students Write Terms Papers? I can support that. Do my children have a hard time understanding what "Don't talk!" means? Their supreme lack of understanding qualifies them for the remedial class. Or something like that. Is it kind of lame that I bought the AppleCare Protection Plan in May and it's...

We went to a movie as a family this afternoon. Calvin lasted  -2 minutes, which is to say I left with the wiggly squiggly child before the opening credits rolled. Had been meaning to get some maintenance done on the van, so pulled up to BigO: Hi, I think I ought to get the 120,000 mile service done on my van. It has 133,000 miles and I've never done that before. What does that entail? Please infer: I'm willing to spend a lot of money, and I don't really know what the car needs because I'm a girl, so please take advantage of my gullibility. Not sure, I'd have to look up your specific model. Let me pull it around back and take a look at everything. Everything looks great. You seemed to have maintained your car really well. You don't need anything done. Wow. I appreciate your honesty. But are you sure you don't want to sell me some service that's really expensive? The front end shakes... I can fix that. It's just the tires that need to be rebalanc...

Note: While I hesitate to post this photo for fear that the possibility of a child getting his head stuck in the rails might give my mother a bad case of the ND, I just can't resist. Sorry, AG. We call him: Calver, Calvino, Cal, Calvie, Little Dude, Pumpkin Nose His latest tricks: picking his nose, shaking his head fervently when anyone asks him a question, going up and down the stairs with great finesse, lifting up the toilet seat and splashing around We love his: irresistible toothy grins, sweet sweet hugs, goodbye waves, open-mouthed kisses He likes to eat: crackers, rice cereal, fruits, pasta, olives, beans, whatever we are eating He promptly deposits on the floor: Cheerios He is getting better at: letting people hold him, not crying for the babysitter The cake that we made for his family birthday gathering which ultimately had to be canceled due to vomitous children in the house was: maybe the best cake I've ever made, really delicious and we're sorry we couldn...

Every once in a while I like to revisit this song. It's a favorite. See 1:50.