food bribes

I am sure every parent has struggled with food and their children. I have been privvy to plenty of get-togethers and watched parents beg, bribe, or threaten their children to eat "4 more bites." The question, "how many more bites do I have to eat" is a common one at our house. I've tried not to be Naziish (is this even a word?) about food, trying to chill out and realize they will not starve (anyway don't all kids subsist on chicken nuggets, cheese, and crackers?) (mom: "what do you want for lunch?" davis: "hotdogs" mom: "but we had that for dinner when we went out AND you ate it at lunch yesterday!" davis: "but I just like them mom!")

Now, if any mom has a reason to worry about their child's size, it's me. Eliza has never grown in height or weight past the 5th percentile--since birth. She will be 5 in a few months and is still wearing two-year-old pants for heavens-sake! I secretly get a smirk (I suppose this could be classified as pride?) when another mom tells me her third child was small until they hit a growth spurt--"I think Sally (name changed for protection of the innocent) was only in the 30th percentile! Don't worry, Eliza will catch up someday." A few months ago I did a height predictor on her based on her current stats; the result: a hopeful 5 feet! We've discussed with the doctor getting her tested for growth hormone deficiency, but even if she was deficient I am not sure I would want to give her shots every day till she is 18.

Anyway, we are planning a trip to Disneyland with D's family in September. The kids are very excited. Eliza was looking especially short when she stood up in Primary today, so I got interested in height requirements for the rides and discovered many require you to be 40 inches. So, we pulled out the tape measure and went to work. Davis is a quarter inch shy of 40 so he should be there by September. Unfortunately, Eliza was just 37 3/4. We figure maybe we can buy some tall, clunky shoes to help her out, but even then, two inches in nine months? I think it is a long shot.

We now officially have a new bribe, "Eat your food so you can grow tall enough to get on the rides at Disneyland with your cousins." (I am crossing my fingers this will work!)

At dinner Eliza said the prayer, "Please bless us to eat the food so we can get on the teacups."

getting old?

So, D has had a week off this week (hoorah!) and we've been piddling around the house. But we promised ourselves that we would belatedly celebrate our anniversary this week. On Wednesday night, we dropped off the kids at grandma's house and went out to eat and then planned to go skiing on Thursday.

I shoud preface this story with my bragging session I had with D on the way up to Snowbird. When I was 11 or 12 I did one winter's worth of ski school. My sister and I were the only girls in the class with about 5 other boys. On the last day of class, we had a little ski-off. Now, all the boys in the class got to bragging before the race, but, much to their dismay, I took home the trophy for fastest skier
(now, imagine me telling D this story with a 'braggy air'. I skiied a bit in high school, not much in college, and once since I've been married.

It has been snowing quite a bit here, so we got up to the mountain and trudged our way up the hill. We rented skiis and boots. My boot was bothering me that morning and on the way up the first lift, it was getting painful. We undid some bindings, but had to do them back up when we got to the top.

The first lift we headed up to was basically intermediate hills, but with my boot too tight, I started losing feeling in my right foot. There was a lot of powder and I just felt like I couldn't control myself very well. I was really muscling my way down the mountain-- complaining to D the whole way (poor guy!). We got to the bottom of the first run and readjusted my boot and sat around while I complained about how "scary" it is to ski with no feeling in your foot.

Anyway, my feeling returned about halfway into the second run (after a 20 minute pit stop a the bottom of the mountain debating whether or not I should try to rent different boots), and I was starting to enjoy myself. I must admit, however, that I was SCARED while skiing. I kept thinking about my kids and how I should be careful (recently a young man died in a skiing accident and D has been on trauma dealing with skiers). Visibility was also pretty poor as it was overcast and windy (the snow that was falling on my goggles also got frozen in the wind. After lunch I was feeling a bit better, but sadly, at 2:00 a had a small fall, but was done for the day.

Anyway, what started out as a braggy morning, ended up as a real bummer. I am forced to realize a few things: 1) my legs are out of shape 2) I can blame my less-than-perfect day on weather, boots, or kids, but, in reality, 3) I am not as good of a skiier as I thought I was. This is a sad realization. I think mayber next year when the twins start school I should get a pass and trade Roger-sitting with a friend so I can get some practice and not let myself down again.

grateful for my alarm clock

Just a simple thought for when that alarm clock goes off too early in the morning. . . .it could be more unpleasant. For the past 5 days, Roger has awoken 30 minutes into his nap with a poop in his pants. How unpleasant. Just thought you should know your wake up call could be worse.

Tagged

So I guess Deedles has been on call a lot more this month, so I've been blogging a bit more. . . .lonely call nights=computer time. Anyway, I noticed that Liz tagged me to share five things about myself (a month ago), so here goes:
5) I am quite good at a lot of things but keeping my home tidy isn't one of them. When friends are due to come over, it is always a mad dash to pick up piles and books littered about the house. I just can't figure out how those clean people do it. I feel like every time I pick something up, it just gets all messed up again an hour later. I am not particularly gifted at organizing and I tend to have sentimental attachment to many things and can't throw them out. So, confession one: I am not tidy (My one caveat to this is I absolutely am disgusted by dirty bathrooms, so I always wipe down toilets and countertops every day or two).
4) The people who know me either pre-college or post-college sometimes get confused becuase I am a bit of a chameleon. It is generally a surprise to either batch when they find out I have lead two lives: my school-girl and high-school ways were definitely in the arts. My family grew up with music (my mom made me join all the children's choirs). I was in a lot of plays in junior high and high school. My true love was dance. I started dance when I was 12 and loved it!! I did jazz and ballet till high school and then did more modern and ballroom dancing then. When I started college I planned on majoring in dance and did one semester with that track. I also took a biology class and LOVED IT that semester (I don't know how I graduated, but had only taken 2 science classes in high school). While I was enjoying biology, I struggled with some aspects of dance (mainly body-image, etc--this problem is a topic of a whole other blog). So I switched gears and immersed myself in science classes. To my surprise I found I was quite good at chemistry and molecular biology. I enjoyed labwork!! What a surprise! So people are always surprised that I was either artsy or ended up in the sciences!
3) I can not say no. This has been a great asset because I've been able to do things that I would never have dreamed of simply because someone asked me to. It can also be problematic when I get totally overwhelmed with projects. On the plus side, I am happy to help people out. (the one time I said no was when someone persistently tried to get me to become a Mary Kay consultant-- I was certain that wasn't for me).
2) I have a mirror face. In high school I got a mirror as a gag gift from my dance company. My roomates used to tease me about it in college, and my husband always gets a laugh out of it. Because I have been the object of so much teasing, he tells me my mirror face has been tempered a bit, but sometimes he catches me in the act while doing my hair in the morning. I don't know exactly how to describe mirror face, but someone teased me once that it was my 'blue-steel' look (see Zoolander)
1) I dislike cooking, but try to do it because I know how important family dinner is. I look forward to the day when I won't blink at take-out prices a couple of times a week.

I guess I am supposed to tag 5 other people, so Sarah, Danielle, Juli, Karlea, and Carrie go for it!

Christmas Pictures

Nativity Bonus

We've been Elfed!

Some friends sent us this link and we had a blast "elfing" ourselves! Check it out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1401780505

Random Thoughts

Okay so I am sitting here and I just ate about half of the cookie dough bits out of the ice cream and figured I needed to do something just a bit more productive. So here I am.

My first random thought is: Happy Anniversary to Deedles and Milly! Yesterday we celebrated our 7th anniversary. Unfortunately, as our family is now running on a surgical intern schedule, we weren't able to get a night out together (he's got a week off in January we will take advantage of). I just had to share my gift: D got a lovely handmade card from me that professed my undying love and a Costco-sized bottle of Metamucil. (the tag line in my card was.. . . . .hope the next 7 years will be even 'smoother' than the last 7). Romantic, eh??? D actually totally appreciated the gift, maybe in some other blog we could go over his BM pathology (I am sure he would be so thrilled that I am sharing this you all--well actually, you know D, he would probably just laugh about it! )

Okay since my blog is entitled random thoughts, I guess my train of thought has now been directed towards my husband and some crazy stories he's told. One of D's favorite things about patient care in general surgery is asking people if they've passed gas yet (meaning they can eat-bowels are functioning properly). Last week he told me that he was asking a lady if she had passed gas and she said, "Oh, you smelled that? I am so sorry!" He let her know that was not what he mean't, but did congratulate her on the returned function of her bowels!

D has now logged a bunch of cases (meaning he performed the surgery in most of its entirety). in fact, he has been a part of so many laproscopic appendectomies, that a few days ago the attending let him do the whole case all by himself--he was pretty stoked. I am thrilled for him, but wonder about the patient. I sure they might think twice about surgery if the knew their surgeon had only been a doctor for 6 months. In these cases I would probably prefer not to be told, wouldn't you?

Well its 9:20 and D just walked in the door, so I should go talk to him while he eats dinner. I am thrilled because tomorrow he gets the whole day off. He hasn't had a Sunday off for 9 weeks! I am so excited he gets to sit through church with me, however, we joked that if he keeps coming to church they'll never release him as Elder's Quorum President.

Okay, final random thought on church callings. For those of you who aren't aware the LDS church does not have a paid clergy. Some of D's senior residents were asking him how much he got paid. . . .ah, if only!! I am joking, of course, we are happy to perform service in our church.

Halloween Pictures

Primary Program, crawling baby, and costume mishaps

I have generally used call nights to catch up on computer time, but as this is just D's second call night of the month, I have not been on the computer much.

Wow, just one week ago Saturday night I was nervous about the looming Primary Program-- how far over time would it be?, which child would forget where they were supposed to sit?, would all the teachers remember my complicated scheme and send their kids up to the mic at the proper time?, would the kids remember the words to the songs? These and other unknowns made for a very restless night sleep last Saturday. When Sunday arrived, the Program came and went (it was very lovely--though, too long, I just can't seem to write anything simple, even if it is for a bunch of 3-11 year olds!) and I survived. Incidentally, for anyone reading this blog, make a point of telling the counselor in charge of the program in your ward that this was the BEST program ever (this may be a stretch, but she'll appreciate it).

It was also last Sunday that Roger decided he was done being immobile. In one night he started rolling all over the crib (he has been capable of rolling for months, but without enthusiasm or interest until now). I spent that night going in every hour to turn him over to his back when he started crying. On Tuesday I decided that I was done with nightime repositioning and he would just have to be left alone. This made for a night with more crying than normal, but he finally got the clue. I think his nighttime crib roaming this week just primed him because today he has been scooting (slowly) all over the floor. Oh no, the baby proofing must begin! This is so much more complicated than it was with the twins because now I am dealing with tiny Polly Pocket shoes left in the carpet, legos, cars, and other childish treasures littered around the house.

After making the twins halloween costumes a few years ago, I swore I would NEVER do it again. Making a Halloween costume is sort of a right of passage for a mom, but so also is discovering you spent way too much time and MORE MONEY than you would have had you bought the dumb thing.

The twins are really into superheroes right now so they decided they wanted to be superman and supergirl. I was in TJ Maxx and found a superman costume, and then we went searching for Eliza's costume. The catch was that she wanted a purple and pink supergirl costume. We couldn't find one to her suiting, so I reluctantly bought material. I have spent the last few days sewing and unpicking this costume to her specifications.

Today, we had a ward party. When Davis tried on his costume he informed me he hated it (it was too big) and wanted to be a skeleton--argh!! We then spent 2 hours visiting 5 stores to try to find something more suitable. Of course, as today is the Saturday before Halloween we couldn't find the right costume IN HIS SIZE, so we went home with the promise I would shorten up the sleeves and legs on his existing costume. After complaining about this for an hour while I did the sewing (of course the machine was acting up--or I was-- who knows?) he reluctantly put on the costume and moped to the party. Later he told me he had "changed his mind" and thought the costume was okay.

As I was tucking the twins in tonight Davis told me, "I love you, mom." He melted my heart, and I had a hard time being bitter at him for the costume fiasco of the day.