Little Girls, Who'd Have Em?

We would often hear my Grandpa Atkin say this when the family got together.

It was funny to all of us, because out of the 24 grandchildren, there are only 6 boys. Three of those boys are some of the youngest, and were not born until after I was in high school. So needless to say our family events were always full of little girls, and my Grandpa loved it!

Last week, at the age of 90 my Grandpa passed away. I loved his sense of humor, and his quiet way of doing things to make my Grandma happy. There were three things I have always been sure of when it came to my Grandpa. He loved his family, the gospel, and most of all he loved my Grandma, and wanted her to be happy.

As my family gathered together I found it fun to look at my parents grandchildren, and see that just as my grandparents family was full of little girls, my parent's family is full of little boys. They have 13 grandchildren and only 3 of those are girls. Our family gatherings are full of little boys.

My sister 's daughter, Bethany, is the only girl at their house, so she is always excited to come visit and see her big girl cousin Emily, and Baby Balerie. They arrived Tuesday night and when I opened the door Bethany had a big smile on her face and said "We are at Baby Balerie's house." Then just like the last time they came to visit Bethany gave Valerie all of the love and attention she needed.

Bethany loves to play little mother, and she LOVES to be pretty. To her the color pink is not called pink it is called pretty.

Two days before the funeral my sister, Ellen, found a "pretty" dress, with matching shoes at the store, and bought them for Bethany. Ellen decided that it would be fun if Valerie had a matching dress since Bethany loves her so much.

When they returned from the store, Bethany immediately put on her pretty dress and wore it for the next two days. (except when she was sleeping.) She would go around showing everyone her pretty dress. The morning of the funeral, she put on her pretty dress, her mom did her hair and she came out looking very pretty.

When I pulled out Valerie's dress and began putting it on her I could tell Bethany was not sure that she liked the idea of having a twin. Then when we all started telling Valerie that she was pretty too, Bethany was done with that dress and wanted her other one on. She cooperated enough to get a few pictures, and then she went to find her other dress.

When she found it she brought it to Valerie and showed her that she had another pretty dress. (I thought it was really cute and funny.) Ellen really didn't want to change her, because we thought it would be fun for them to match. But Bethany was not going to have competition.

A few days later, after they returned home, Ellen showed Bethany the pictures we had taken of her and Valerie. She loves the pictures, and still wants to wear the dress everyday.

"Little Girls, Who'd Have Em?...........

Us's That Got Em!"

Consumed By Video Games

We introduced video games into our house just before Josh turned 2. Even though he could not play them he was mesmerized by them and had to hold a controller. Joe and Emily are pretty good about Video games. They like to play them, but if there is something else to do they will go do it. However Josh just wants to play Video games ALL THE TIME!

To him there is only one activity worth doing and that is playing the Wii. He does not want to play with friends, or go to preschool. He has even started passing up going on outings with me, which is something he use to always love to do. Now when I ask if he wants to go to the store, he says no I will just stay here.

I never felt like I really needed to limit Emily and Joe with Video games, because they were good about turning it off when I told them too, and not really spending too much time on it. (Joe has gotten a little worse now that he is older) But now that I have a 4 year old who is already ruining his life over Video games, I have had to change the rules, and I am up for suggestions.

Plan #1
I started by only letting them play an hour a day, and that worked for a bit, but after a few days when Josh had to turn it off he started following me around the rest of the day crying, whining, screaming and stomping his feet because he didn't get to play long enough.

This was not good for me. I told him if he kept doing that then he would not get to play the next day, but that meant nothing to him. So I reevaluated my plan.

Plan #2

The next thing I tried was having them do chores to earn their video game time.

Emily has always been a really good helper around the house, and will do anything for money. To get the boys to clean anything is like pulling teeth and money means nothing to them. However extra video game time is like gold especially for Josh. He will do anything for more Wii time. This was working most of the time, but now I feel like all we do is bribe Josh with the Wii to get him to do anything.

If he will clean his room, or pick up the front room, the toy room.
If he will ride his bike for a while or play outside. I have even had to use it to get him to play with friends.

You can see how we have gotten in a bad cycle. Then last night I really needed the kids to get some things done, so I told them if they did it, they could play Wii all day today. (knowing that they had school for part of the day.) The kids did everything I asked and did not complain. They went to bed on time and everyone seemed happy. Then at 3:00am Ryan rolled over to find Josh standing next to the bed.

"It's morning I am ready to play Wii all day!"

Of course Ryan sent him back to bed, and he eventually went back to sleep.


PLAN #3

Only play Wii on Saturdays?


To be honest I really don't mind my kids playing Video games a little bit each day. I find it gives us a little bit of down time, and I can usually get a few things done while they are playing. (unless I play with them.)

PLAN #4

I guess I will just keep limiting his time and introducing him to other things, and when he is a little older he will find other things he enjoys..................or he will just be old enough to stop following me around screaming and crying when he has to turn it off. (He does get sent to time out for that, and the Wii does not come back on.)

The Wii is consuming Josh's life.

There is so much more in life to be excited about, what can I do to help him figure this out?

I don't feel like this is a power struggle between us. I just feel like that is all he thinks or cares about.

Let me know if you have any ideas!

First Tooth

On Saturday I noticed that Valerie's first tooth had finally broken through. She has been drooling and chewing on everything she could for a couple of months, and she seems even happier now that it has broken through.


It is her bottom right tooth so it is impossible to get a picture of it right now. Valerie likes to stick her tongue in and out to feel it. She has also started saying la la la a lot now. I think it is because she can feel her tooth when she says it. It is so fun to watch her discover new things.

Remembering Jan

Four years ago today, my friend Jan passed away. I will never forget her, and often think of her and how she influenced me. I know I would be a different person if Jan had not been a part of my life.

She was one of my closest friends during those hard teenage years. I can not imagine going through Jr High and High school without Jan.

Jan had the ability to go for what she wanted no matter what or who got in her way. If she wanted it she went for it. I admired that in her and was always amazed how she never let her peers stop her from doing what made her happy. She also encouraged (sometimes pushed) me to do things I was afraid to, and was one of my best cheerleaders.

Jan was also the perfect example to me of Christ like love. No matter who you were, or what you were doing, Jan loved and accepted you. It did not matter how old or young you were, Jan was your friend, and wanted to help.

Jan and I had many great times together. I still laugh about some of the crazy things we did. She was my friend I could talk to about anything or call at anytime of the day. My house was her house and her house was mine. (Ryan didn't know what to do the first time Jan came too visit us after she got back from her mission, and just walked into our apartment.)

I am so grateful Jan was a part of my life. I could not have had a better friend, and because of her friendship I am a better person. I love you Jan!

Victory

When Emily was a baby Ryan and I could not wait to see what her first word was going to be. The experts say that a baby's first word is usually Mama or Dada. So during the day I would say mama to Emily a lot, secretly hoping that she would say it first. When Ryan came home at night he would say dada over and over again to her, just like most parents do. I don't really remember which one she said first, but she started calling Ryan, Myda.




When Joe arrived, there was much of the same anticipation over his first word. However during the Joe baby period, I realized that if they learned your name they could call for you in the night and it gave Ryan the perfect excuse not to get up........"He's calling for you."




So when Josh came I changed my game and started encouraging him to say Dada when he started to jabber. Ryan quickly caught on and encouraged Mama. I can't really say which one he said first, because he had his own language, and I think his first word was Boo boo. (train) But, I am happy to say that when Josh moved from his crib to a bed I trained him to go to dad's side of the bed when he got up in the middle of the night.



Valerie has been quite talkative as a baby and jabbers on about many things, no real words yet, but lots of good talking. Then last night as I was making dinner, the magical sound of Dada started to fill the room over and over again.

Victory!

When Ryan realized what she was saying he immediately started encouraging her to say Mama, but the only response he got was.......da da da da da.




She hasn't connected the sound da to the meaning of the word dad yet, but it wont be long, and she is not even trying to say Mama yet. This might make some moms a little sad, but not me. I know I am still her favorite because, she always comes to me over dad, but now when she calls out in the middle of the night I can roll over and say, "She's calling for you."




Lucky for Ryan, Valerie is a good sleeper and rarely wakes up before 7:00am.

The Secret Is Out

When we first moved to San Diego I found it amusing that people wore coats in the winter. I think there was maybe two days the whole first year that I even wore a jacket, and we never turned on the heat. After a couple of "winters" there I started bundling up a little more and even turned on the heat a few times. Five years later I found myself living in San Diego wearing a coat.

Then we moved back to snow country in the middle of November and I thought I was going to freeze to death. Even though I had lived here for most of my life, the short time in heaven ruined me. My body had acclimatized to the warmth. Needless to say I do not spend too much time outside in the winter. Once the snow starts to fly I am happy to find indoor activities to keep me occupied.

The only problem with this plan, is the fact that I have children. Children who do not care how cold it is, they want to be outside sledding and playing in the snow. I can't blame them. I was the same way when I was younger. Emily was 6 1/2 and Joseph was 2 when we moved here. So I bought a sled and told them that the "hill" in our back yard would be perfect for sledding. (and it was for a 2 year old.) They seemed happy going up and down the little hill.

A couple of years past, eventually Emily started to ask if we would take her sledding on a big hill. We signed her up for ski lessons and she was happy again for a while. Every now and then, after they had been sledding in the back yard, she would mention that we could take them sledding on a bigger hill. Luckily whenever she would really start to push the subject, some poor child would be on the news with an injury from sledding. That was enough to deter Emily.

This year when it snowed my kids happily went out to our little hill. Then after the last big storm Joe's friend Charlie invited him to go sledding and my secret was out. It is a lot more fun to go sledding on big hills. I already knew this, because we had great sledding hills in my neighborhood when I was young and I loved going sledding as a kid. Joe came home and told Emily and Josh how awesome it was, so they all started begging me to take them. Over Christmas beak I loaded the kids and the sleds in the car and we went sledding with some friends.
In the neighborhood where I grew up there was a park that had a great sledding hill, and we have a similar park by our house. It is like a big bowl, so the kids don't go out into the street.

I have to admit it was lots of fun.

Because it was Christmas break there were a lot of people on the hill. The kids were pretty good about making sure their path was clear before they started. However, people who were not on sleds were not very careful about making sure they were not walking into a sledders path, so there were a few hits and a lot of close calls. Luckily no one was hurt in the crashes.

We stayed at the park all afternoon, and by the time we left Josh was too tired to walk to the car. Now my kids are waiting for another big snow storm to come, so that we can go sledding at the park again. I can't wait either.

6 Months Old

Valerie has reached big mile stones this last month. She has started eating real food, like apple crisp and peach cobbler. She does not like rice cereal or carrots, but she will eat oatmeal, apples and sweet potatoes.

She can now sit and play without any support. and she is already learning how to talk back. The other night Ryan and I were ready to go to bed, but Valerie was still awake. We put her in her crib to see if she would go to sleep on her own. (She has before.) I can't say that she started to cry, because it was more like she was yelling at us rather than crying. After a few minutes she quieted down and went to sleep.

Valerie is starting to get better control of her hands. She is getting really good at putting her binky in and out of her mouth, and she loves playing with toys. One thing I have noticed is that she gets bored sometimes, but if I change what she is playing with or if we change our activities, she is happy again.

She loves it when her siblings play with her and when they start running around she kicks her legs and laughs. It won't be long before she is running with them.

Now she is trying to figure out the answer to her biggest question,

Which tastes better...............

Your Fingers,

Or Your Toes?