Another Milestone...

Lucy started kindergarten last week. Now both girls are gone all day to school and I'm left to wonder where the time went. I'm surprised at how difficult this adjustment is for me. I know it's only been a week and my friends keep telling me that I'll get used to it and even come to enjoy it, but that isn't the case right now. Now I stand at the end of the driveway every afternoon watching for the bus to round the corner with more anticipation than a child hoping to hear Santa's sleigh touch down on the roof Christmas Eve. Sure, as the weeks and months pass I'm bound to become accustomed to the hollow sound of the house empty about me, but it's the growing up part I don't think I'll ever get used to...

Chicken Tongue Cleaner

Whenever Lucy sees something she likes be it in a store,on tv or just out and about, she will ask me if she can have it for her birthday. Mind you, it can be 2 weeks before Christmas and still she asks, "Mommy, can I have _____________ for my birthday?" Since this occurs on a frequent and regular basis, I have taken to just saying, "Sure! When it gets closer to your birthday we'll put it on your list." Emma's birthday is just a few short weeks away so we have been busy preparing for her big day. This, of course, makes Lucy excited for her own birthday, which is just about 5 weeks later. Emma really wants a new bike and since her knees touch the handle bars when she peddles the little 12 inch one she has now, it's pretty much a done deal. Lucy, however, has no such need, so these days I take a keener interest when she mentions something that she would like. The other day we were getting ready for bed and Lucy asked, "Mommy, can I have a new toothbrush with a chicken tongue cleaner for my birthday?" I realized immediately that I must have heard her wrong, so I said, "What did you say?" and she repeated, "Mommy, can I have a new toothbrush with a chicken tongue cleaner for my birthday?" As I struggled to figure out what she was talking about - I mean, do chicken's even have tongues? - I asked, "Where did you see one?" hoping to get a better take on what it was she was talking about. Lucy said, "Emma has one. She got it from school." And just for clarity she held Emma's toothbrush up for me showing me the bumps on the back of the toothbrush head and said, "It has a chicken tongue cleaner right here." The light bulb went off in my head and I said, "Oh, right. A toothbrush with a cheek and tongue cleaner. What color do you think you want?"

Worth Remembering

Lucy is such a stitch! Yesterday she gave Dada instructions on how to dance like a sunflower. "First you put your feet together, bend your knees and bounce up and down. Pretend like you have petals around your head and sway from side to side." Less you think my kid extremely imaginative, she and Dada love to play a computer game called "Plants vs. Zombies" where sunflowers are the key to your survival. They produce "suns" which you use in turn to purchase plants to defend yourself. It's not as horrific as it sounds - it's really kind of cute and very clever. You, the unseen homeowner, plant flowers and such in your yard that fight off oncoming Zombies. Some of the plants are peashooters, potato mines, cat-tails, melon pults and doom shrooms. They are all wonderfully animated and with good coaching Lucy is always able to plant a line of defense that keeps the Zombies from entering the house and "eating her brains." There are different Zombies that have different strengths. Some wear buckets on their heads as protection. There are Zamboni driving zombies that lay ice for bobsled zombies and ones that wear scuba gear to swim in your back-yard pool. One even resembles Michael Jackson and he sprouts back-up singers as a wall of protection around him. He is Lucy's favorite - she calls him "Jackson Michael." You are able to "win" the entire game as you advance through different levels and ultimately defeat "Dr. Zomboss." Once that happens the zombies and sunflowers have a dance party and rock out to a catchy little song. Lucy loves to watch the little music video and knows all words to the tune. This is where she learned to dance like a sunflower and her repeated viewings have made her an expert.

Something brought to my recollection a cute thing Emma did probably a year ago or so. I know I told many of my friends, but I don't know if I ever recorded it for posterity and it's too good to forget.

Lucy used to (and still does with less frequency, thank goodness) have MAJOR meltdowns where there was just no reasoning with her. They usually happened at night, helped along, I'm sure, by her tired state. After one particularly draining episode I finally got her in bed and asleep. Emma was having trouble sleeping - probably because such episodes key everyone up - so I laid down in bed next to her to help her get to sleep. I stared up at the ceiling; my mind was racing trying to figure out what I could have done to avoid the meltdown, what I could do better next time and what I needed to repent for as soon as I was able to kneel in prayer. I let out a big sigh and said, "Emma, I just don't know what we are going to do with your sister." Emma thought about it a minute and replied, "Maybe we could sell her on e-bay." That caught me by surprise. I tried to suppress a laugh and calmly said, "You don't sell members of your family." "Oh," she replied and then after a few moments of careful contemplation added, "Then maybe we could just give her away."

Contemplations on the passing of time....

The girls just continue to grow – way too fast. I wish I could turn back time. Sometimes I wonder if you were allowed to choose one point in time to freeze, you know, say, “This is it and I want stuff to stay just like this forever,” when I would choose. Doesn’t seem like there would ever be a time all the stars would align and everything would be good enough to want to freeze it – you know, wait til they are out of diapers, wait until I don’t have this calling, wait until my hair grows longer or some such reason the grass would be greener some other day. So I guess you just have to savor the good moments within each individual day. Sure, I might not like my calling today, but the kids might be at such an awesome age, when you can still see that little sweet spot at the base of Lucy’s neck before her hair got long enough to cover it up or maybe I don’t think my house is quite picture perfect but I like my friends and the stuff that keeps me busy outside of being a mom. No, there is no perfect time to freeze – probably a good thing too, cuz you can’t. Just lots of wishing, in my case, that I had a better memory for what they smelled like, or how their little body fit in my arms, the way they looked sleeping, or the funny things they would do, the cute tone of their voices or silly things they would say. They say that when you stand before Christ to be judged you will have a perfect memory of all your deeds – good and bad. I wonder if you will, too, have a perfect memory of ALL things and if you get to keep it. Maybe being able to remember all the sweet moments of their childhood is the counterbalance for having to recall all your sins. I wonder if the good will outweigh the bad….

I Think Our Girls Are The Cutest!

I'm sure I'm no different than any other parent, but I happen to think our girls are the cutest thing going. We had their pictures taken by this awesome photographer named Tina. She put the proofs on her website. Here is the website if you want to check out our cuties! You will find our photos listed in the right-hand column.

www.onceuponafairytale.photoreflect.com

My favorites are for Lucy 65, 129, and 143. For Emma 75, 109, 117, 125, and 127.

"The Friendly Beasts"

This year our ward was delighted when our family sang during the Christmas Sacrament Meeting Program. Okay, so they weren't that delighted with Loren and I, but they sure loved hearing Emma and Lucy sing. Of course, we didn't video the performance at church, but everyone kept asking me if I had the girls on video so I taped them singing for Great-Grandma Irene during our Christmas celebration in Honeoye. In the "original" version, Loren sang the donkey verse, I sang the cow verse, Lucy sang the sheep verse and Emma sang the dove verse. For this rendition, they took over all the verses, which you will see created a little "oops" for Lucy. Although they did great, I have to say, the performance at church was far better. Of course, with Loren and I flanking them on either side they stood still and focused, plus, you can't discount the Spirit that was there for the program. It truly magnified the sweetness of the song and made it memorable for all that were present.

Lucy's Version of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
I know that the holiday is over, but I'm just getting around to adding some of the holiday videos to the blog and besides, this one is priceless no matter the season. My favorite part is when Lucy uses her "Santa voice."

Dexter isn't exactly mountainous, or even hilly, for that matter. So when it comes to sledding, you just make do...

Making the House Move

The other day I sat watching Lucy spin 'round and 'round until she was so dizzy she had to sit down. Once she was down I watched her gaze at the floor, head still circling and eyes trying to focus. Once she got her bearings she got up and did it again. And again. And again. Although I enjoyed watching the insanity of it, finally I feared the cost of her and my amusement, so I said, "Lucy, please stop doing that." To which she replied, "Why? Because I'm making the house move?"