You just never know...

This post is for all the current and former Nursery teachers and leaders. I remember the 6 months I was Nursery Leader, and feeling there was really no point sometimes in trying to give a lesson because, who was listening, anyway?

As a parent, I always ask my Kiddo what he did in Nursery, and his answer every time is, "Share!" I'd like to hope that he's actually sharing, but I sort of doubt it. Anyway, since they've started using the new Nursery manual, we sometimes get to see a glimpse of what the lesson must have been, based on the coloring pictures he brings home. But rarely will he ever talk about what the picture represents. Here are two exceptions.

First, this video, from August. It cracks me up, because it is a pretty good representation of Kiddo's true feelings about obeying Mommy and Daddy-O... sigh.



Second, a story from a few weeks ago. While getting Kiddo ready for his after-Church nap, I was singing, "We are a Happy Family" ("I love Kiddo, He loves me. We love Daddy, yes sirree. He loves us and so you see, we are a happy family."), not a song that we routinely sing, for whatever reason. At the end, Kiddo exclaimed, "YEAH! And, I can love others!"

"You can love others?" I asked. "Where did you learn that? At Church?"

"YES. In Nursery."

He didn't care to elaborate, but after I got Kiddo to sleep, I told Daddy-O the story and asked him if he had looked at Kiddo's picture for the week. Daddy-O hadn't seen it either, so he pulled it out of the diaper bag and looked.... Sure enough, the caption reads, "Jesus Christ showed us how to love others!"

So take heart, Nursery Leaders, someone just might be listening after all!

28, a day late

Kiddo hit 28 months last week, so I thought I'd dedicate a post to 28 Things Kiddo Loves. To be extra cute, I thought I'd post it yesterday, on the 28th, but somehow I didn't get it done. So here it is, a day late, but all still true!

1. Typing on the computer, a lot.
2. Coloring, a lot.
3. Leap Frog Videos from the Library-- he mostly has The Letter Factory memorized.

4. Yogurt.
5. PIZZA!!!
6. CD: "Snacktime!" by "The Ladies." I'm just not ready for him to be saying their whole name, though, ya know. But don't worry, Gobby, the whole CD is totally appropriate for my precocious toddler.

7. Making messes, as many as possible.
8. Making his own "music," heavy on the percussive sounds.
9. Nursery.
10. Having "friends" come to visit-- this includes family, out-of-town friends, and my Visiting Teachers.
11. Playing ball.
12. Both Books and Videos: Charlie and Lola!!!

13. His Mum's ever-so dreadful faux British accent. ("Do the voice, Mama!!!!")
14. Spelling-- I stopped counting, but I think he can spell over 100 words now.
15. Brushing his teeth, "by [him]self," thank you very much.
16. Book: "The First Thousand Words in Russian," which I bought for myself in college. I'm fairly certain he mostly just likes the pictures, since he can't read Cyrillic. He can, however, count to ten in Russian now.

17. Taking baths with his foam letters and numbers.
18. Book: HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON, by Crockett Johnson. He's got most of this classic memorized, also.
19. Song: "Like Me and You," by Raffi.
20. Arguing with Mama about the lyrics to #19. He insists it's "Bolga lives in Russia" instead of "Olga lives in Russia!!!"
21. Even though he's never seen Madagascar yet, he likes to sing "I Like to Move It, Move It," as taught to him by the Daddy-O.
22. Hugs and Kisses from Mommy and Daddy-O.
23. Asking Mommy to sign words, or if I don't know the sign, to finger-spell them!
24. "Dancing" and singing loudly in restaurants, stores, Church, or waiting rooms, but only if it's his idea.
25. His red tricycle, which he's too short to ride, but he likes to sit on it and pretend he's going to Target to "buy diapers."

26. The Phone Book. I am absolutely, positively not kidding. He even has a favorite page, which is only in one of the many phone books we've had delivered to us. Imagine your child saying, "Let's play, Mama. I will get the phone book!"
27. Looking (just about every day!) at photos from our trip to Lesotho.

28. Watching videos of the kids of our friends and family online, and asking me, "Who's that?"

So, there you go, a lot of Kiddo's current favorites. Of course, it's hardly worth mentioning that he still loves EIGHT and W, and the color red. Some things haven't changed!

Kiddo's Portfolio?

I can't remember if I've shown any of Kiddo's other attempts at photography on this blog or not. Either way, he was busy last week, taking photos of sheets and carpet so I deleted most of them. However, these few amused me, and I thought I'd share.

I think that of all the photos he's taken so far,
this is the one in which you can best tell what he's looking at.

Here we've got his forearm, t-shirt sleeve, and our closet.


BOO!
I really don't know how he managed this one,
but it cracks me up every time I look at it.
Makes a good Halloween picture though, eh? :)

Number One Baby

Jennifer also tagged me with this one, about your first baby. I hope this doesn't fall into the category of "TOO MUCH INFORMATION." I really tried not to be too graphic. However, if you've never had a baby, don't blame me if this freaks you out.

First, some photos of my little guy. Note how pale, pink, and practically bald he was-- NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING!!!! I really thought people would question my virtue... However, who could be disappointed with a cutie like that? I was really relieved he was so adorable.

1. Were you married at the time? Yes

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? I hate to admit this, but I had no clue I might be pregnant until I went to the doctor with an ear infection and the doctor asked, before writing a prescription for antibiotics, "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" Oh, I was sure... I had PMS, right...? That night, I did the math. Then I started FREAKING OUT, and praying to get my period. I felt totally overwhelmed. However, I knew I did want children, so I decided instead to pray for peace, no matter what the outcome. The moment the nurse told me I was pregnant, I felt a calm wash over me that erased the anxiety. THEN, I was really happy.

3. How old were you? 28 when I found out, 29 when he was born.

4.How did you find out you were pregnant? I took 2 home pregnancy tests, but I was in denial until I got the results of my blood test (over the telephone)!

5. Who did you tell first? The Daddy-O, who laughed!

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Absolutely! The Daddy-O said he would have preferred to "be surprised," although, being a witch doctor, he said from the beginning, "it's a boy." I say, as long as I'm having the babies, we're finding out ASAP.

7. Due date? June 19.

8. Did you deliver early or late? I was induced on the 21st, two days late.

9.Did you have morning sickness? Praise the Lord, no. I did have some queasiness for a few weeks, but no throwing up.

10. What did you crave? What didn't I crave? First bananas, then McDonalds McNuggets, Fruit Loops (dry), Crunch Berry cereal (dry), chocolate milk, Cherry Pepsi, lemon poppyseed muffins (gasp!), carrot sticks, pineapple... etc. I also consumed MASS quantities of ketchup and tomato sauce. I easily could have eaten pizza, spaghetti, or lasagna EVERY day. After the fifth month, I never felt full. Ever.

11. Who irritated you the most? Again, this is horrible, but probably the kids I worked with at school. In all fairness, one of them scratched up my wrists and broke my necklace. Another liked to scream and run away from me. One kid asked me why I was so fat. Another told me I couldn't be married to Daddy-O because he was brown and I was white. Yeah, good times...

12. What was your first child’s sex? Boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 39 lbs, at the highest point (about 38 weeks) . By my due date, it was down to 34 lbs, but I found the whole process very traumatizing. There is a reason I don't have a scale at home!

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Hmm, this falls under the "do you really want to know?" category. At 15 weeks, I had unexplained bleeding and had to go to the ER. The only good thing about that was getting to see him on Ultrasound 5 weeks ahead of schedule. The ultrasound tech commented on how much he moved, and correctly predicted his gender.

During the last 2 months, I retained huge amounts of water and was uncomfortable all the time, so I had to take sick leave the last 2 weeks of school. But, the real problems began at the very end of my pregnancy, when I tested positive for group-B strep (not such a big deal) and my always-perfect blood pressure suddenly shot up at the end. That's when they decided to schedule the induction. Of course, if you know me REALLY well, you know my major complications all occurred after his birth. :(

15. Where did you give birth? Mary Greeley Medical Center

16.How many hours were you in labor? They broke my water at 7:30 am. But I swear I never felt a contraction until noon, after a LOT of pitocin. Then they were suddenly NON-stop. Kiddo was born at 5:55 p.m. If he'd had a smaller head, he could have been born almost 2 hours earlier. The very nice, but nonetheless dingy, nurse said, "Oh, you'll have him out in about 3 good pushes." HA! Famous last words...

17. Who drove you to the hospital? The Daddy-O.

18. Who watched? The Daddy-O and my Mommy.

19. Was it vaginal or c-section? Vaginal, but with forceps. Blech.

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? You bet your sweet bippy. After an hour straight of constant contractions, I could hardly breathe at all. Yeah, I wanted to go natural, but... I'm a total wimp. After the epidural, I felt tired, boneless, and shivered a lot, but I didn't feel anything from the waist down until after he was born. For a brief hour I thought, "hey, that wasn't bad at all." Then the real pain began (from 3rd degree tearing and a grapefruit-sized hematoma)...

21. How much did your child weigh? 7 lbs, 14 ounces.

22. What did you name him/her? Well, you know I'm not posting that. But his first name is my Dad's name, and his middle name was chosen by my husband's parents, and means "prayer." I had considered naming him Isaac, since we laughed when we found out (plus, I love the name), or Moses, since I was reading the Old Testament while I was pregnant and wondered why nobody names their kid after an awesome guy like Moses any more. However, about 2 months before Kiddo came along, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their son Moses, and I REALLY didn't want anyone to think we copied them. I do love them both, but just not that much.

23. How old is your first born today? Two, going on 40.

I always feel disappointed if I tag someone, and they don't want to do it, so here's the deal: if you're reading, and have a first-born, and you want to, I tag you. If you'd rather not, don't worry about it. I promise I'll still love you.

Only six?

I guess I haven't shared enough of my "quirks" with y'all, because I got tagged twice with this one, by Jennifer and by Spring. Either that, or my obvious weirdness makes them wonder what other hidden craziness I might possess. Either way, when I saw this tag to name six of my "quirks," I immediately thought of this scene from Runaway Bride, although I, unfortunately, misremembered the exact words, which are as follows:

MAGGIE (Julia Roberts): But you haven't lost your mystery! You're very mysterious!

PEGGY (the fabulous Joan Cusack, who I LOVE): No. I'm weird. Weird and mysterious are two different things.

MAGGIE: But I'm weird.

PEGGY: No. You're quirky. Quirky and weird are two different things.

So, here are my six. You can decide: quirky, or weird?

1. Ever since I discovered justified text, I think all documents should be justified, unless they're lists or photo captions. I really can't even begin to edit my husband's papers until the text has been justified. So the Ensign and the Friend, while wonderful publications, drive me a little crazy.... as did a book I read recently. I thought all novels had justified text! argh.

2. Toilet lids must be down unless someone is sitting on them, or just about to flush something down them. Really, who wants to look into a toilet? And leaving the lid up is just asking for trouble.

3. I don't think I could ever really pick one favorite of anything, except husband or Mom, I suppose! I have long lists of favorite things, and constantly feel like I must be leaving things out.

4. I really love the idea of gag gifts, and wish that I were rich enough to justify buying them. I just think it would be loads of fun to see the look on someone's face when they open their gift and it turns out to be a Chia Pet, or a Richard Simmons DVD, or some truly hideous outfit. On that note, I guess you should all be glad that I'm not rich because you'd likely be among my victims! (insert evil laughter)

5. You know how on those cheesy radio shows, the disc jockeys have all these buttons where they can play stupid noises or goofy sound bytes? Sometimes I wish I had a little mini-machine that did the same thing. I'm always thinking while I'm talking of little catch-phrases from old shows or movies, or that sound they make at the beginning of every Law and Order scene, but my ability to mimic them is sorely lacking. Sadly, I realize this means I do sort of have something in common with Rosie O'Donnell, because, if you'll recall, on her original talk show, she would push some button under her desk, and a sound byte of "How bizarre, how bizarre" or something else would play... sigh.

6. I cannot publish a post, or send an email unless I've read it several times to edit. And if it turns out I didn't catch an error, I feel upset. I have even been known to edit a post after it's been on the blog a few days if I don't like the way I wrote something. I know-- can you say, "Perfectionist?" It's so bad.

7. Okay, it's only supposed to be 6, but since I'm extra-weird, I'll give you a super-sized TAG with one bonus item: I think I am incapable of purposely posing for a goofy photo. You know how people love to pose for pictures in which they're screwing up their faces, or flexing, or jumping in the air, or pretending they're Charlie's Angels? I don't get that, at least when adults do it. Goofy photos of kids are different. I guess I've had so many "regular" photos of mine turn out looking dorky that I have no need to create any more dumb pictures of myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Okay, so there you go. I can't remember who all has done this TAG before, so if you haven't, I will tag Amy, Rachel, and Mikaela. If you did it and I just forgot, please forgive me. I'm getting old. I may do this for Kiddo, too. Being my son, he's a crazy, quirky little guy.

Look-alikes?

I didn't know my Kiddo was such a chameleon. Is it just my imagination, or does he look a little bit like....


... Samuel L. Jackson?




... Tiger Woods?




... he wants to make a statement?

"Oh, yes, they call him the streak!"

One of Kiddo's latest hobbies is deciding to "get a little bit more comfortable" by suddenly removing his trousers. He doesn't seem to let visitors inhibit his behavior, either-- he's disrobed in front of his grandparents AND my new visiting teacher. Thankfully, he hasn't done this in public YET-- his shoes seem to be a fairly effective deterrent. So far, he's still leaving his shirts on, but I think this is just because the size of his cranium prevents him from doing that alone!

Anyone else have crazy, wannabe-streaker kiddos?

altogether too pleased with himself!

BBC NEWS: 50 interesting words

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 50 of your favourite words

Can I call myself a true nerd or not? I really only knew a small percentage of these words! I don't think that any of the following words are as obscure as those listed in this article, but I like munificent, dilapidated, ersatz, expeditiously, and ephemeral.

Another favorite is not really a word, but a Kiddo-ism: "rependous." This is his accidental combination of "remarkable" and "stupendous," two words I like to use to describe his talents! :)