Proud Mama...

Here's the story, and sadly because you don't get the facial expressions and sound effects, it might just come across gross instead of hilarious.

Liam is a long waker. He likes to sit in his bed for a while after waking up in the morning or from a nap. He just hangs out...inventories all of his crib stuff. "Four green blankets, still here. Blaaah the sock martian, got him. One, two, three kiki's... they all still suck fine. Better put one by the wall, and one under my pillow, in case I need it for later." The post-resting ritual can go on for upwards of twenty minutes.

I was sitting on Anders bed yesterday waiting him out, just chatting with my little men, Anders was jumping on the bed, and Liam was just sitting in his crib. My attention was split between them as Anders would say "look Mama!" and do a belly flop, or sit down. Liam was just looking around, patting his blankets... picking his nose... Out of the corner of my eye I see the finger go up the nose, and quick as a flash, go into the mouth. And yes... he got a pretty big one...

"Liam, yucky... don't eat your boogers! kkahhgggahh." (Gag, gag, gag.)

"UUUMMM, Yummy sammie. MMMMM. Slurp."

(I wish I could make "slurp" sound like it did coming out of his mouth. Imagine soup... l o n g strands of spaghetti...sssllluuurrrppp. But more of the sucking sound. This particular sound is a preschool sound. One that is used with the pretend food in the pretend kitchen. His teachers use it to encourage less mouthing of toys and more pretend eating.)

Anyway back to the story... How could I do anything but laugh? He had that LOOK OF LOVE on his face, and his come back was priceless.

So, he has had the positive response to the negative behavior, and will probably be one of THOSE men that pick their noses in their car for the rest of his life. Oh well, I guess truth be told we all still pick our noses.

At least I have a story to share with the entire world. I will definitely tell his kids about it. Probably break it out at his wedding too...

Good News! A little Halloween in February!!!

I recommend books to others frequently. I've been telling everyone I know about The Graveyard Book since October. I need to STRESS to everyone who, strangely, still have not read it, it's time... It just won the 88th Newbery Medal.... Like you need another reason to enjoy the book.

Congratulations Neil Gaiman, (I say this like I know him.) It's a wonderfully delightful book.

Plus, It will be a movie soon, and I'm sure you all know about my book before the movie O.C.D. thing. I'm not taking anybody who hasn't read the book first. Sorry!

ALSO... Coraline comes out on Friday, which means you still have time to read THAT book before you RUN, (not walk) to see that movie.

Enjoy both.

Sounding Educated

Believe it or not, Anders is now dealing with some of the same asthma stuff that Elleory dealt with earlier this winter. Thank goodness, we have not been to the hospital with him; we caught it very early. He is having a breathing treatment every 4 hours, and one dose of a steroid a day. This kid is flyin'... The upside is he's eating, just about every thing he can get into his mouth. The downside is he is having a hard time controlling his little body and falling asleep. But once he's asleep, he's out for the night. He is even sleeping through his treatments at night. Which, in the grand scheme of things is really wonderful because I can then fall right back to sleep also.

I have had a conference with his doctor every day now for three days. Let me tell ya...there is nothing better than sounding educated when you are talking to a professional. I love it.
"Yes, Doctor. Anders is breathing much easier, the Dexamethasone is working, but he is still pulling with his auxiliary muscles when he is breathing." I sound like I know what I'm talking about! Which truth be told, I'm totally quoting things I've heard on E.R. and hoping I don't sound ridiculous. I do however know what I'm talking about because I've been listening AND paying attention at the hospital, AND the doctor's office, AND reading up on the subject. It's amazing what you can do when you (can) pay attention.

It's nice to sound intelligent, every once in a while.

AAAHHHH....Bliss.

I got my Zune back. It's fixed. I can dance in my kitchen, I can run 10 miles, I can breathe...

AAAHHHH....

Microsoft should have called it ZEN instead of Zune, maybe that's what they were going for.

Primary Answers

Anders is working on the L sound. So we are saying a lot of words with L sounds at the front, middle and ending. For example...Liam instead of Wee-um. Plane instead of Pwane. It's an interesting sound made by bringing your tongue up to the roof of your mouth and pressing it right behind your front teeth. I'm pretty sure you know how to make the sound.

At speech therapy on Monday we were talking about pLanes, and Liam, and pLaying with puzzLes. On of the puzzLes had a picture of a pLane on it. I asked Anders

"Who just came on a pLane to visit you?"

He thinks about it for a few seconds and then says as clear as a beLL, "Jesus!"

Jackie, our speech therapist just about wet her pants. It was I have to admit a proud moment for me as the Mom. The perfect primary answer to a question that was probably pretty hard to come up with an answer for, and he said 'Jesus' for the first time instead of 'Sheus'.

What a great day!

My Kiki

I'm struggling to cope with life.

Before you all start to worry, I'm actually fine. I don't need a prescription for Prozac or Valium. I don't even need a therapist for this. Just a little panic button pushing.

I've lost my Kiki. That's what all of my kids have called their pacifiers. I have a Kiki... it's electric blue, and holds everything I need to hear, read, enjoy, watch, view... My Kiki's hard drive went out and I had to send it to some unknown location in Texas by FedEx to have it repaired. It's thankfully under warranty. I check my email each day for a progress report; arrived at destination, check. Reviewed by repair guy, check. Repair guy makes repair, check. Kiki shipped back home, check. Relaxing, breathing easier...

Will arrive in 3-5 business days. Aaarrrggg!!!

It's a weekend, FedEx delivers on the weekends right?!? NO!!! I'm almost ready to curl up into a ball under my dining room table like my three-year-old does to try to pull myself back together. Doesn't someone at the repair place realize I'm trying to train for a 10k? Don't they know that the gym is horribly boring with out access to the TV/radio channels?!? Don't they know that I'm really not attached to anything else remotely mechanical?!? Doesn't anyone care that I also gave up diet coke this week?!? PANIC...

oh, and I have to be home to sign for it when it does arrive.

MORE PANIC... don't they realize I have a life?!? This leads me to the most vital question...What will I do when I have to cross the prairie to join the saints in Zion and I can't recharge it because I don't have electricity and it runs out after only six hours of musical enjoyment? OR more importantly...what if my actual computer hard drive fails, or the world Internet goes down and I can't PUT anything else into it and I have to listen to what I have for the rest of my life?

PANIC BUTTON...

All of this over my Zune. Which I love, by the way.

I guess when the economy is a little better, I'll buy a back-up. Motherhood has taught me the value of a back up Kiki. I guess Uncle Bill is trying to teach me a lesson as well, back-up, back-up, back-up. President Hinckley also was trying to teach me a lesson when he said "Save a little something for a rainy day".... it's raining!

Really, I'm OK.

Reaping the Whirlwind

Whatever that means...

I think that every parent should have an extra week to get everything back together after one's children have any amount of time off of school. The clean-up certainly takes that long. In my case I would like to take two weeks, paid, to get my ducks back into theirs particular rows. This is of course, a child-free two weeks and did I mention, PAID??? Pipe dream, I know....

ANDERS-ISM....

Anders asked today (we just took the tree down on Saturday) when Santa is coming back. I told him No tree... No Santa. Long thought process, visible cogs turning. "We should put the tree back up."