little things

Little things make me smile. And sometimes (well, most of the time) I forget to write them down. Like how Lucy straightens her legs and points her toes (smooshing her totally chunky thighs together) when I lay her down to change her diaper or how Grace just has to do a little dance in front of the mirror (while singing some silly song to herself) in her towel after every bath before she can gear up to get her pjs on. And I want to remember this stuff. So here’s some from lately (along with some random things that have been going on):

–Claire can “read” Bears on Wheels and is very proud of herself.
–Gracie and her cousin Ana started a “book club” and are deep into their books competing to see who “wins.”
–Claire’s imagination is rampant. She could make a fork and a paper towel look fun to play with as she pretends they are princesses or witches and has them go through various adventures. Needless to say, her princess figurines she got for Christmas are even better than a fork and a paper towel…especially when they get to go in the tub with her……and her sisters don’t mind them either.
–Max likes to tease Grace like nobody’s business.
–Lucy STILL tries to eat when her binky’s still firmly planted in her mouth.
–Grace says marathon prayers and remembers everything from Nana and Papa on their mission to thanking that “we’re ‘medium’…not rich and not poor.”
–We make cookies pretty much every day lately. I’ve got to stop. I’m having a hard time with will power. But even when I’m not trying to get out of my post-Christmas-sugar-craving we make cookies at least on Friday night (which is family movie night), and on Sunday after dinner. Each kid gets the amount of cookies they deserve from how reverent they were in church. I am pretty much a cookie addict.
–Lucy tries to share her binky with me.
–Elle is super duper conscientious about school work. She tries so hard.
–Max has lost a bunch of interest in school work this last year. Hmmm…trying to figure that one out.
–My brother Tal came to town for a business meeting. Among other things he schooled Max in a little basketball.–Lilly has a night-time routine of trying to get out of her cage. She pulls herself up on the side bars of her cage and noisily gnaws away at the railings, just determined as can be that she’ll be able to bite her way to freedom. Her determination has worked out for her a couple nights and she’s escaped (not through the railings but she’s figured out how to unlatch the top of her cage). Once she was lost for three days, and the other time it was just a night. Both times she caused Grace to emit blood-curdling screams in the middle of the night when she was found. (Once when Grace got up to use the bathroom and once when Lilly was trying to gnaw a hole in the wall next to Gracie’s bed.) We’ve since discovered the wonder of twisties and how they make excellent “locks” on hamster cages. That being said, we have fallen in love with that funny little hamster and are so glad to have such a nice pet who puts up with even Claire and her friends lugging her around all over the place.
–Elle got picked with one other person in her class to be in the school spelling bee. She didn’t make it past the first round, but hey, congrats to her for making it that far!
–Claire & Lucy think when I get in the shower it is their cue. It’s Claire’s cue to gob on as much lip gloss as her small lips will hold from my make-up drawer (she puts it on pretty much the entire time I’m in the shower) and it’s Lu’s cue to empty every cabinet and drawer in my bathroom. Little stinkers.
–Lucy is off the charts in height and only in the 85% on weight. I say “only” because if you saw her you’d bet good money on the fact that she’d be off the charts in that too. She’s usually happy when she’s in what Dave calls her “throne” (her high chair). –Our bbq grill still isn’t finished…and Dave is getting more lax about the back rubs. Hmmm, maybe it’s time to really finish it.
–Lucy loves enchiladas:
–Max can drive a car. He learned at Bear Lake last summer. Sometimes I am tempted to let him drive one of the carpools.
–Lucy can’t walk. She’s 15 1/2 months old.
–All the kids have developed a highly talented sense of “selective listening” (translation: they completely ignore me)
–I love Amoxicillin. We thought Claire was really going deaf. She honestly couldn’t hear us. We’d say something and she’d put her ear right up to our mouths and ask us to repeat what we said. So we got a little Amoxicillin down her and she’s back to just ignoring the stuff like, “please help empty the dishwasher.”
–Dave’s office is close to home…and we all love that.
–After a few very expensive speeding tickets I am proud to say that I am finally a “barely above the speed limit” driver. This is aided by the fact that my kids continually ask me if I’m speeding…they don’t want to see their mom freak out about another ticket.
–Gracie no longer cries at the drop of a hat…she’s suddenly become so mature.
–Claire has swiftly filled in where Grace left off. She cries at the drop of a hat and throws a few kicks and screams in there too. She can also rarely be found without her new princess outfits her Grammie gave her for Christmas (see picture).
–Max can now wear men’s sizes at the Gap. He’s 10.
–Dave gets up diligently to work out every morning…impressive. So instead of making him stay up at night with me while I do my “projects” or finish things from the day, (I hate when he falls asleep without me), I’ve been going to bed with him and getting up at 5:45 with him (well, he gets up at 5:15 but I can’t go that far yet). I’m naturally a complete night owl, so we’ll see how long this arrangement lasts but I love it so far. I love being awake early ready for the day.
–I worry that I’ve been hogging Lucy so much that now she’s so darn attached to me she won’t go readily to the open arms of my other kids. This is what she looks like when I set her down (or try to hand her off to one of the kids:How can you not pick up a face like that? I want so much to share her with them so I’m trying to figure out how to wean her of my constant attention. But then I want to eat her up so it’s hard to share her. Catch 22.
–My brother Josh who lives by us had a birthday last week. We love that we get to live by him. Every neighbor kid loves to come over when they see Josh’s car at our house. He’s just so great with kids, as you can see in this picture with his school class. He’s an awesome teacher.–Elle just learned how to do a back handspring. She is ecstatic.
–On my way home from a photoshoot today I couldn’t help but pull out the camera again in my driveway when I saw these girls:–and another driveway shot (in my rear view mirror)…
–Unlike the children described in many Christmas cards we received this year, a few months ago Max was having a tough time getting through the last Harry Potter book. So my strategy was to do a little trash talking. I bet him I could finish my book club book I was reading AND finish Harry Potter before he did. So the race was on. The trouble is he finished a couple months ago and I’m still plugging away. Man we could have bought a couple Harry Potter books by now with the amount of overdue fines we’ve paid for our books from the library!

On that note, I’m off to read Harry Potter (and to go to sleep so I can wake up early again tomorrow…)