A Long One--post not day

This is a common sight around here. It's called a "twirling knot" caused by excessive twirling of the hair by thumb-sucking two-year-olds. The hair never really recovers from the abusive twirling and generally falls out.



Big news: Cowen got a new bike!!! We planned on getting him a bike in May but during family council last night Timothy and I checked craig's list and ksl.com just one more time because I didn't want to use up all my money on a bike when I needed to buy garden supplies this month as well. Voila--we found this bike for $10.00. PERFECT!!!

When Cowen got up this morning he walked up the stairs to find this bike leaning against the wall. His response: "It's not a Spiderman bike but that's o-tay!!" Tonight in his goodnight prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for his bike (and Santa, but that's not really relevant, just funny).

The only drawback to the bike is that there are no training wheels. How early did all of you learn to ride a bike without trainers?? Timothy took him out for a trial run this morning at about 7:45 am (and yes, I was out in my house-coat taking pictures) and we spent two hours in the park later that morning working on it (among other park sorts of things).



He's one happy dude.




















Getting his gear on.













Emeline's new bike!! While we were hunting for Cowen's bike we hit on this steal-of-a-deal. When Emeline climbed the stairs and saw this sweet bike she paused for a few moments, studied it carefully and then said, "This me bike!" and promptly climbed on. She also shrieked at an incredibly high decibal if anyone else looked at it the rest of the day.

When they send you home from the hospital with your newborn they should provide you with a large supply of ear plugs.




Cowen helping Eli smile for the camera. I'm confused at his tactics too. Maybe it's a guy thing.

And now the funny parts of this blog post. My kids were really hilarious today for some reason. Maybe it is snail-induced exhaustion that accounts for it.

Last night I was in bed by 10:30 (my goal is ten but I wanted to see the bikes when Timothy brought them home) and I was happily slipping into slumber when Emeline's shrieking began. Timothy got out of bed to check on her the first time. He's always more concerned about her well-being than me. That is a direct result of my spending more time with her, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, he came back upstairs and informed me that Emeline had had a nightmare about snails, apparently, and thought that all the decorations on her sheets were snails. We have a lot of snails in our yard. Emeline is not a fan. Timothy had calmed her down though so we chuckled and started slipping into blessed slumber again.

Then the shrieking started again. I went down and hugged her and kissed her and assured her there were no snails in her bed, and then went back upstairs. At midnight (grr) the shrieking began again. I went downstairs, snarled at her that there were no snails in her bed and turned on the light. That seemed to do the trick because I didn't hear from her again until the morning.

As for Eli--I'm retraining him. He was sleeping through the night at two months but then he got those two ear infections and woke up lots and I got up with him because even I'm not mean enough to ignore a sick baby. So the last two nights I heard him vaguely and didn't get up. He must not have cried for long because I only heard him briefly. Another few nights and he'll be sleeping through the night again.

While I was doing my hair this morning I heard loud banging on the piano. I glanced into the living room and found Emeline standing on the bench using her backside to pound on the keys. I said, "Emeline, don't play the piano with your bum! Use your fingers!" Then I paused, thought about what I'd just said and giggled for the next five minutes.

After breakfast and chores we went to the park. We did all the normal stuff--played pirates, chased each other around and up and down, rescued the princess (Miriam of course), screamed at the shark onslaught, and rode bikes. At one point I was watching Emeline and paying limited attention to Cowen and Miriam who were playing on this balance beam thing that moves around a little bit. I heard Miriam say, "Now let's be sloths. Sloths sleep hanging upside down." I looked over only to see two sets of arms and two sets of legs as Miriam and Cowen hung upside down making snoring noises. Trust Miriam to play "Sloth."

At lunch, Cowen asked me one of his favorite questions, "When you die?" I told him I would probably die when I was really old like great-grandpa. Then he said, "You die when I big?" I said "yes" and then Cowen said, "I can't wait to be big." Timothy thought that was sooo amusing. I'm comforted in that I don't think Cowen made the connection. Truth be told, though, I giggled like a maniac too.

Later that day the kids were playing hide-n-seek. It was Cowen's turn to seek and he counted more or less accurately to twenty and then yelled, "Here I come. Or not!" Hee hee. Changes the whole structure of the game, doesn't it. Emeline kept it simpler--she just yelled, "One, four, three, four--I FIND YOU!!"

Other big news was that Cowen took his first official math test today because he absolutely insisted. I wasn't even going to do math today, but he pulled out it. He's been doing chapter one of Miriam's kindergarten math. He got 100% (after a small hint to reconsider one problem). He was so proud. I even let him use a pencil to take the test like Miriam gets to do. Then when Dad came home Cowen dragged him over to the wall where his test was taped up to show him. That's one of the best parts of having a Dad--you get to be excited all over again when you tell him about your day's achievements. Kudos to Cowen.

In summary, today was a good day. For one thing, Megan (my sis) brought me sushi last night and that will really fortify me until the next time she buys me sushi (she bought me my last sushi too). She also brought Miriam three Magic Tree House books that she had duplicate copies of. She told Miriam that they were a birthday present as a joke but Miriam took it to heart. Cowen wasn't allowed to breathe on them because they were her "birthday present." I chuckled when she noticed that Danica's name was in all three books. She said, "Danica's name is in it." Long pause. "Well, that's still okay because they're my birthday present." She started reading the first one after breakfast and chores were through and was finished by 10:30. She'd read all of them by 4:00. Megan, you found some winners. Thank you!!


There were so many fun parts of the day--watching Miriam read and Cowen try to ride his bike and Emeline climb up the climbing wall using her knees (she doesn't use her feet to climb--it's kind of weird). And then I had a Magic Mom Moment: I was sitting on the orange recliner burping Eli. I had my hand on his belly and my other hand on his back and he wrapped both his little arms around my hand and held onto me so tight in that indescribably wonderful way that babies sometimes do. Eli is such a blessing; a fresh delight every time I see him. So my heart was all squishy from Eli and I glanced around to see Cowen and Emeline happily singing together on the piano bench and I knew Miriam was reading on the poof downstairs. For that moment everything in my world was absolutely perfect.

And that is why you always need a baby in the house.