Keeping Up With the Joneses

Holly and I in Chicago last October When I was in graduate school in Maryland I had some of the toughest and most growth-promoting years of my life. I'm not sure I would have come out of it the way I did had it not been for my best friend Holly. One thing we love to reminisce about is that just a month or so into the program two of the men we were good friends with in our year in the program already had found girlfriends after such a short time in Maryland and we had yet to go on a date. We had pathetic conversations about how we worried we would always be single, were too something to be in a happy relationship, and basically just felt sorry for ourselves for being the only two 22 year olds not in relationships (okay, we were a little dramatic). Now, 8 or so years later, we are the ones in happy marriages, building our families, and loving life. This weekend Holly came out to Utah to visit and we had a fun time being tourists in Salt Lake. On Friday we toured BYU and I introdu...

Our last visit to the dentist six months ago was a nightmare. When Mason's jaw wasn't clenched tight he was crying and screaming and wanting to go home. So this time I was pretty nervous about our visit. I left Myles with a babysitter so that I could spend all my efforts comforting Mason and. . .he didn't even need it. He was great, let them do everything, and actually said he had fun! Phew!

On Sunday we had a huge box of peaches from Marshall's grandma's peach tree, and because I really didn't want to can them or make jam, we decided to just freeze them instead. So, three hours later we have a freezer full of frozen peaches! Hopefully Marshall's siblings will come get some so we have room in our freezer for other things!

Mason and Myles are so different that it absolutely amazes me that they get along so well. The biggest difference lately is their interests. Myles loves animals more than anything in the world. At least 2-3 times a day he wants to go across the street and see "pup", which means our neighbor's dog Sadie. He brings me his shoes, points to the door, and cries "pup! pup!". Anytime we are outside he makes a run for it across the street to see the poor little dog. Mason would much rather not accompany him, but when I make him come with us he hides behind me and warns Myles "be careful Myles, he will bark, he's not a nice dog Myles" while Myles goes crazy kissing and hugging the very patient dog. This morning Mason went to gymnastics preschool with our neighbor Esher for the first time since last winter, and Myles was so upset when Mason went in the room and he wasn't allowed. He cried and cried as I took him to the car and said "I want brother...

How about this for Marshall's Halloween Costume? One of Mason's favorite Thomas movies is a Halloween one, and somewhere these last few weeks he picked up that Halloween is rolling around again soon. My mother-in-law has a Buzz Lightyear costume and we have some really cute cowboy boots for Myles, so I've been trying to push onto Mason that he should be Buzz Lightyear and Myles should be Woody. He seemed okay with that, although occasionally he has mentioned that he would like to be a dragon. We were at Costco a few days ago and they had all their costumes out (a great deal at $9.99 for anyone who is interested) and Mason saw the dragon costume and started getting excited and wanting me to buy it for him. I told him that I thought he and Myles were going to be Buzz and Woody and he said "no, me and Myles are going to be dragons and you are going to be Woody and daddy is going to be Buzz". No amount of convincing will work to tell him that mommy and daddy WILL NOT...

Just a few funny things the kids have done before I forget: * Yesterday we were driving to soccer lessons and Mason said "mom? If you are really really good today, maybe tomorrow I will take you to Jumping Jacks . But you have to be really good and obey me. And you'll have to drive. And help us take off our shoes. And help us climb the slides. And pay them money. But only if you are really really good today." * I was complaining to my sister yesterday morning that I was worried that Myles wasn't saying enough words for his age. Just a few hours later we were driving to the grocery store and Myles said clear as a bell "Mama, I want Grandma Delta". It was so cute. All day I was noticing how many words he actually does say and was really surprised. * This morning I was doing flashcard letters with Mason and we were saying what words start with the letters. Some examples he gave: O--"like when I tell you something and you don't understand and I keep tel...

Just some more pictures. . . And a funny story. Myles is really working on saying new words, but sometimes he gets so frustrated when his daddy doesn't understand him. A few days ago he obviously wanted something in the kitchen and Marshall couldn't understand so he said "point to it". Myles stopped whining and pointed his finger and. . .waved it all around. And then he was so mad that daddy didn't know what he was saying. Since then he'll look at me and say "I want that" and point around to the sky, the floor, everywhere thinking he is telling us just what he wants.

Last night we were playing around and everyone was getting a turn to be the horsey and the rider.

Mason has definately not forgotten the 5 weeks we spent in Waterton this summer, though I'm concerned about his logic. 1st, he knows we are going to Canada for Christmas and says "when we go to Canada at Christmas, we are going to ride bikes and go for boat rides and pick berries". He definately doesn't remember what Canada is like in the winter. 2nd, yesterday he went outside to play and immediately screamed and ran back inside yelling that there were "flying gophers" on the driveway. I went out to check it out and it was a sparrow. 3rd, last night he woke up screaming with a nightmare. When we went to investigate he said the deer were going to get him. Now the deer in Waterton were pretty aggressive this year, but I'm surprised it left such a strong impression.

After considering all the commitments I have made on Mason's behalf and the crazy week we have had trying to fit everything in, I decided to pull him out of the computer preschool. It is an awesome program and I think he could really like it, but it is too hard for me to help him and manage Myles at the same time in that room. I realized that I've been trying so hard to make sure Mason gets a ton of educational experiences this year that poor Myles is basically always and observer, and he needs and deserves more attention than that. So now Mason will have alone time with me for preschool while Myles sleeps in the mornings (and his babysitter is going to do preschool with him and her own son while she is here), and then I'll have alone time with Myles on Fridays while Mason goes to gymnastics for 4 hours and in the afternoons when Mason sleeps longer than Myles. Mason will still have a very casual "preschool" at home for on M-Th, gymnastics on Friday, soccer this...

This was one of those times I really wish I had taken my camera. I took this picture before we left the house for his first soccer lesson. He was crying because I told Myles to show the babysitter his trains and Mason was worried Myles would "mess them up". I'll take pictures next week, but this was really the funniest thing I've ever seen. Picture about 20 3 and 4 year olds playing soccer, which was completely new to most of them. They do a warm up (3 year old jumping jacks are hilarious; half of them fell over touching their toes). Then they practiced kicking, dribbling, and throwing in. Then the soccer game. . .CRAZINESS. So 20 kids chasing after one ball in all directions, and every 30 seconds or so a kid would come running off the field crying to their mommy or daddy. Well, except Mason who refused to participate! He didn't want to get in the mess of kids and just wanted to sit on my lap and watch. I told him that if he went and tried to kick the ball once ...

My wonderful mother-in-law got us a pass to Jumping Jacks, which is good the entire year. Jumping Jacks is basically a warehouse full of these inflatable slides. I took Mason, Myles, and their cousin William there on Tuesday night while someone was seeing our house and they had a blast. As you can see, no mountain was too high for Mason and William, and poor little Myles just ran around trying his best to keep up. They all had a blast.

After interviewing a few potential babysitters, I found one that I think will be awesome. She is a mother of two boys, each a few months older than my boys, who just moved here from Richfield, Ut. She is happy to come to my house, could commit to coming for a year, and seems like a great caregiver. Phew!

Okay, I couldn't resist the goofy title. So a habit I tend to have in my life is overcommitting myself. I thought it stopped there, but now I'm starting to worry that maybe it is spilling over to my children. I decided not to put Mason in preschool this year because when I work 2 days a week I really want to be able to spend the other two days playing with him. He still takes 4-5 hour naps in the afternoon, so if he went to preschool in the morning that would be his whole day with no other time for relaxing and playing with his brother and mom. So instead, I thought I would just find a few activities that would let him play with other kids a little while not having the formal setting of preschool. So first I signed him up for soccer lessons, which start tomorrow and are about 2x a week for a few months. Then I talked with a neighbor and we decided to send our boys to the gymnastics TGIF which is from 10-2 on Fridays and is just like an informal preschool with time for gymnastic...