Four Little Words

There are certain things we wait for our kids to do. Things we teach and sometimes dwell on. These things include saying "Mama" or "Dada", crawling, walking, and so forth. I recall Landon coming home every night from work when Parker was a newborn. He'd hold him and say "Dada" over and over again. He'd move Parker's mouth with his thumb while he was saying "Dada". It was cute at first, but promptly got annoying. Months later, what was Parker's first word? Kitty, but Dada was the second.

I was the one who encouraged Parker to crawl and walk. I remember getting down on the floor and showing all my kids how to crawl. Owen had the army crawl down at four months and almost skipped the full crawl. He needed extra encouragement with walking. Zoe, well, we should have pushed her down. She hit all her milestones too early. Landon's grey hair will attest to this.

We encourage our kids, sometimes we push them and sometimes we are surprised by them. It was to my delight last week when Zoe came up to me and jumped on my back. This wasn't the surprise. The surprise was that she pulled my ear close and said, "I love you mommy!" There was no prompting other than our daily good morning and good night love. It was just there. It is a happy "first" that I hope to always remember.

It is so easy to loose the joy of being a parent and lately it's been a daily struggle. But, moments like this are rejuvenating-So thank you Zoe Kaye. I have a feeling you have wisdom underneath all that silliness.

Punched Out!

Now, I understand that hitting is wrong. My kids usually understand that hitting is wrong, but there are times when a good punch just hits the spot as was the situation between Owie and Parker on Sunday evening.

On Sunday Parker helped Owie with his seatbelt while Landon and I were still making our way to the car. We were headed to dinner. There were no comments or crying and we found ourselves blissfully on our way with little difficulty, a rarity in our family. As we pulled into the restaurant after a ten minute drive, I turned to talk to Parker who had been unusually quiet in the car. (Parents seldom notice that something could be wrong with the silence, we simply enjoy it! And often when we realize something may be wrong, we still just enjoy the silence!) Anyhow, as I turned to talk to Parker, he burst into tears, "My brother punched me and knocked out my tooth!

Tears immediately formed in my eyes as I quickly translated Parker's blubbering for Landon. I was trying to spit out something sympathetic to Parker but all I could do was laugh. Landon was no better, but he did manage to get out of the car and go around to console the grieving boy. You see, Parker's tooth had been loose and was about ready to be pulled out. I was going to have Landon pull it out on Monday so Owen simply beat us to the punch.

After words of encouragement and a search for a tooth that is still missing we went into the restaurant. The tooth will probably never be found due to the broken white candy cane pieces that were all over the backseat of the van.

Thankfully the Tooth Fairy knows that these things happen and Parker cheerfully woke up on Monday morning to find a pack of gum and a crisp $1 bill under his pillow.

Wasatch Back Relay....What Have I Done!!!

So there is excitement and terror in what I have done, but today with the help of Kamille, we created a team to run the Wasatch Back Relay. Oh, it should be fun and a bit crazy knowing us and most of those involved. Truth is, that if you are friends with me or Kamille...worse yet, me and Kamille, there isn't much sane about you.

http://http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php

So a team of 12...well, we are still two short, but they will come. (Any takers?) The Wasatch Back Relay, for those who don't know, is a 178 mile relay race that spans over 24 hours. It starts in Logan, Utah and ends in Park City, Utah. There is truly only one word to give this race justice.....ALTITUDE! Ha! You thought it was going to be a naughty word. I'm saving those for race day. Our van will probably need a dollar jar. And after we are done we will probably be able to buy a Park City timeshare.

Our next step, other than finding two more teammates (hint, hint!) is to name our team. Our two current possibilities are 1)WTF...I thought this was a 5k? AND 2) WWJD? Certainly NOT THIS! It's up for a vote among our ten runners, although I've temporarily named it #1, I have an equal fondness of the second. Yes, they are crude. My mother already chastized me, but as Kamille put it when hearing team name #1 was, "If that's the worst we hear during the run, we are doin' good!" Sometime Primary songs just don't cut it!

Well, I had to make a quite post to insure that there isn't much sane about me, but then...we already knew that!