Adventures in Prayer

Annie is a little lukewarm towards the prayer thing. Most days, she just ignores us while we pray. Others, she loudly proclaims, "did you know I HATE prayers?" and refuses to fold her arms. I guess it's deserving as I told my parents when I was just a bit older than she is that I was not going to pray anymore and didn't for a stretch of time.

Last week, we got lucky, however. She was willing to say several prayers for us. Sometimes she will say them on her own while other times Daddy says the prayer and pauses for her to fill in the appropriate word. At nightly prayer, Daddy was helping her bless each family member and when he got to Annie, he said, "bless Annie to know she is ..." I think he was going for "special, " but Annie, after a short pause, very reverently said, "a human."

Cole and I did not respond in such a reverent way, but Floyd managed to hold back his laughter until after the amen.

Most days, she's right - she is quite human. Other days, she seems almost angelic.

And then there are those days when I wonder if two-year-old's aren't actually part of a different species.

Just the Two of Us...

Dear Floyd-

Remember way back when it was just you and me? We didn't know what kind of freedom we had back then! Remember how we used to go to the temple and not worry about finding a babysitter? Nowadays, we travel three temples away just to go to one near a babysitter we trust.

Remember all those trips we took? Glacier, Reno, the Oregon Coast (4 times!), Hawaii, Yellowstone, Island Park...? Remember how we would buy new CD's for the trip to listen to good music while we drove? These days, we stock up on kid DVD's to watch while we drive and you have to bring your earplugs because you go crazy listening to them. And remember how we'd talk and talk and talk and not be interrupted? Doesn't happen much anymore, does it?


Remember how we used to go to restaurants and actually linger for a bit? Not rush out as quickly as possible to get the kids out before a disaster occurs. And sit at the table the entire time and not have to walk around entertaining the kids?

Remember how you used to go fishing and I'd come along for the drive and read by the riverbank just because there was nothing better to do? Remember how we tried that the spring Cole was 1 and just about lost him on the Logan River because he escaped from me so quickly? Haven't tried it in a while, have we?
Remember how we would go hiking and just hike the entire time? It didn't really matter how long or short the hike was, we just hiked. No stopping for rests, no staring at bugs on the ground, no racing cousins down the mountain? Who knew what a relaxing time we were having?
Remember how if we wanted to sleep in, we just slept. No negotiating who had to get up? And if we wanted to wake up early, we just woke up? No worrying about waking up the kids? And remember when there was no such thing as planning around "nap time?"
For three years, it was just you and me. Sometimes, it's hard to remember what life was like back then. It seems a little crazy these days and for some reason, we decided to make it even a little bit crazier by adding child number 3 into the mix! I'm not sure what we were thinking - as of next week, we will officially be outnumbered. Yikes! If someone had told us how life would change, who knows if we would have been brave enough to give this parenting thing a go. Maybe that's why they don't tell you. Yet somehow, especially when Annie wears her swimsuit and flip-flops into the store in the middle of February or Cole writes us a new Harry Potter adventure, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks for taking this crazy ride with me. I love the life we have together - all four soon-to-be-five of us.

But I'm certainly glad for the memories of those first three years.

Surf's Up!

Dear Grandma and Grandpa-

Remember how we made you drag our boogie boards home from Hawaii? I bet you thought that was kind of useless since we don't live near a beach - especially in the wintertime. Well, you were wrong. We figured out a way to bring Hawaii to our house. These are perfect for stair-surfing! We've had lots of fun playing with them.




We still wouldn't mind going back to the beach, though.

Love,

Cole and Annie

Sometimes...

...life just wears you out. It's hard being 2.

And why can't I look so cute when I am sleeping?

..

Naming Woes

What's in a name? For us, that's a loaded question. We are at T-21 days until the baby comes and still no name options. Naming girls? No problem, we could have a dozen. Boys are a different story. When we had Cole, we fought it out for a good nine months. He went home from the hospital with a name, but just barely. There are two main problems with choosing boys names for us: 1) I like very few baby names. 2) Floyd likes very strange baby names. This doesn't leave us with many options.

You would think, given that his name is a bit unusual for someone in our generation and that people still ask him, "no, seriously," when he introduces himself, that Floyd would be a little sensitive to strange names. You would be wrong. Now, I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but...here are the three names Floyd was really rooting for when we named Cole. You decide.

1) Blue. Like the color. Would have been really awesome if his middle name was Floyd, right? Blue Floyd.

2) Lester. Yes, rhymes with "molester." I'm sure he never would have been teased.

3) Danner. A brand of hiking boots. Not really what I wanted to name my son after.

He doesn't really seem to have any set criteria for names that he likes, so it's hard to predict what he will like. His only real stipulations are that they can't be preppy or trendy (which should be interpreted to mean that he knows more than 2 children with that particular name).

My criteria, on the other hand, are a little demanding. I'll admit I'm very fussy. It's hard to nail down exactly what I do and do not like in a baby name, but here are some basic guidelines.

1) I like the name to have a good meaning. No matter how much I liked the name, if it meant something like "bean grower" (Fabian), I just couldn't use it. Even worse are the names people make-up that have no meaning whatsoever. Katie means "pure" - I always liked having a name that meant something nice. I tend to be drawn toward names with some type of religious significance, but other good virtues and qualities work for me too. Also, I like family names. Annie Rose was named after my great-grandma and my mom. Floyd knows the names of about 2 of his ancestors, so he's not much help there.

2) I want people to know if the child is a boy or girl based on the name. I spent a lot of years testing preschool aged children for my job. I did not like not knowing whether the child was going to be a boy or a girl. This is even more important for a boy than a girl and is one of the big reasons I don't like one of Floyd's new favorites - Lane.

3) I do not want you to be able to guess within a ten year time frame when my child was born. When I was in 5th grade and we studied the president's, I decided to name my girls, Madison and Kennedy and my son Jackson. I had never heard of children being named any of these names. They are clearly not so unknown anymore and none remain on my list of favorites. It's not that I hate all the names on the Top Ten Baby Names Lists - I actually like lots of them, I just don't want to use a name that will be so tied to a specific time. My great-grandma was an Ethel and as odd as that name seems today, it was on the top ten list during her particular year of birth. I looked it up.

4) Spelling is hugely important to me. Maybe it's because of my years in the school spelling bee (which I hated being in, but made the sacrifice since my mom always got me a new outfit for it), but I just don't like weird spelling. Granted, some names can be spelled in several ways and one way isn't really more correct (Kelli/Kelly, Haley/Hailey, etc). This doesn't really bother me. It's when there is one generally accepted way of spelling it and parents decide to get a little too creative. I think this bothers me because of the many bizarre spellings I encountered while testing kids. Like Cheyenne spelled Shien. How would I know how to pronounce that? Poor kids never get any souvenirs with their names printed on them, not to mention that they spend their entire life correcting people!

5) The obvious one - no bad memories of other people connected with the name. This is probably true for most people and why my husband will not let me use the name Elizabeth. Not even for a middle name.

So, if you have any suggestions that fit the above criteria - both mine and Floyd's - we'd love to hear them. My mother-in-law asked this weekend if we'd narrowed the list down yet and I just laughed because we are actually still looking for names to put on the list so that we can actually have a list. While it is tempting for me to just put the decision off until after I deliver because we all know Floyd is too sweet to not let me have my choice of names at that point in time, I really want to find a name we both like. Wish us luck! We certainly need it.

Impressions of Monet

Cole's preschool class has an art show each winter. Last year was Van Gogh and this year they all did a Monet painting. Cole chose Mannerportre Near Etretat. Here is the original:


And here is Cole's Version. With half a smile from Cole. We get either half a smile or one of those extra-cheesy-for-the-camera smiles.

Great job, Coley. We had a great time at your art show last night.

Harry Potter Book 8

Floyd recently read Harry Potter Book 1 with Cole. He loved it. They are now in the middle of book 2 and the problem is that past book 2, I think they get a little too scary for a 5-year-old. Cole insists he is going to read them all and I insist he will wait a few years. Cole really likes making books, so the other day he wrote a little Harry Potter book. The title - "Harry Potter and the Dragon of Justice." He wrote the entire book himself - the only word I helped him spell in the entire book was "justice." He, obviously, did not spell them all correctly, but his invented spelling shows how crazy English language rules are. The whole language people would be so proud of his work. I tend to lean more toward the "we need to teach phonics" side of that debate, but even still it was fun to see him work on it. (You likely have no idea what the whole language/teach phonics debate is if you do not have a child learning to read or did not take a collegiate reading pedagogy class - it's really just another thing to argue about). The book is 11 pages long - here is a sampling with corrected spelling and punctuation added by mom.

"Harry Potter and the Dragon of Justice"

Ron and Harry sat at the table for breakfast.

When Harry and Ron got off the table, Ron was holding a large broom.

Harry and Ron ran away as fast as fast as fast as fast.

Harry and Ron were scared.

When Harry Potter and Ron were happy Professor McGonagall was waiting.

The (can't figure it out) part of Hogwart's was close.

Suddenly a huge dragon came.

But as Harry and Ron were close,

Ron had a large broom.

The End.

He's obviously missing a few details in the plot, but all in all it wasn't a bad story. I quite liked the title, although I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually know what the word "justice" means. It's fun to watch him learn and see words come alive for him. Next week he starts the first grade reading level. We can't wait!