Sweet Moments

New haircut, wearing mommy's shoes

Christmas Sunday the children sang at church. Our ward (congregation) is VERY LARGE. So our Primary (children's group ages 3-12) is also VERY LARGE. The Primary leaders had a nice idea for how to position the children so that the little ones wouldn't be hidden from view, but it didn't work out as well in reality.

Adaline with Grandpa at the boys' Christmas concert

As we sat in the back and watched, Chuck & I tried to spot our kids. We found Hayden & Stewart standing in the back row and could see their faces clearly. But it was hard to find Adaline. Finally I saw her- behind a few other kids and we could just barely see her face occasionally if one of the other children leaned the right way for a second or 2. Well, Chuck couldn't spot her, so since we were in the back, he stood up. She obviously saw him, even when we couldn't see her, and suddenly we saw a hand shoot up in the air, arm fully extended with the hand flapping at the top. I pulled him back down into his seat. But a few seconds later he stood again to try to see her and up went the flapping hand again. It was adorable! Well, he finally stopped standing himself, but would wave to her every few seconds, and even though we couldn't see her, she apparently could see us because each time, up would shoot the flapping hand. It was THE. CUTEST. THING. EVER.! I just want to relive those moments over and over. Please, won't someone just make time stand still? I love this golden age of childhood!

All decked out for dance class. We were late that day because she insisted on accessorizing herself, even though it was 70 degrees out!

A Child's Prayer

I should have written this sooner because it happened last week and is a little fuzzy in my mind now, except the 2 main details.

One night (well early morning really) last week Adaline came into our room to sleep on our floor since she was scared. This has been a regular occurrence as of late-- one of those childhood stages. Well, that morning Chuck was up with her trying to soothe her fears and encouraged her to say a prayer to ask for comfort. I was in and out of sleep, so I didn't hear all the conversation that transpired, but I did hear her say, "He doesn't hear me right now. He's listening to someone else's prayer!" Was this my 4-year-old talking? I remember wondering those kind of things around age 10, but at 4?? It surprised me. But my heart felt relief a few moments later after the prayer was said when I heard her say with complete assurance, "I changed my mind, Daddy. He was listening to my prayer." And went sweetly back to sleep.
Not sure what my sweetheart said to reassure her, but whatever he did, he helped restore the wavering faith of a 4-year-old. Good job, honey!

PS- Lest you be misled, I am actually the one up with my kids in the middle of the night 98% of the time, but I'm so grateful for a husband who will fill in occasionally when I've already been interrupted many times in one night or when he happens to be sleeping lightly once in a while!

PPS- Happy Birthday, Hayden! 9 years old today!

My Little Princess

It was so exciting and unexpected to have a little girl after 2 boys. Adaline is, I believe, a sweet and mild-natured girl, as evidenced by her early personality. But it is so interesting the impact 2 older brothers have on her. They bring out a wild side that she simply does not manifest in their absence. Today there were 2 little episodes that had me laughing that illustrated my point perfectly (well, they don't involve anyone acting wild in this case, though that does happen in our home most every day.)

This morning the kids had friends over (we are in year-round school and are currently tracked out.) When the other moms came to pick up their children, I looked down and there I saw my daughter dressed in her Cinderella dress-up holding a toy pistol. That's my girl!

Then, while I was heating up dinner, the kids were playing in the kitchen. Adaline had her doll stroller loaded up with miscellaneous toys as she typically likes to do. She was sitting on the floor pretending to feed one of her dolls a bottle. In comes Stewart and I hear her saying, "Don't kill my baby!" He ignored her pleas and shot the doll anyway. She lamented that he killed her baby and went back to feeding it. Back he comes and shoots it again. This time I am turned their direction, so I see her begin to protest again. Then I see her pause and she turns and reached into the stroller behind her and pulls out the pistol from this morning and goes back to feeding her baby. Bottle in one hand, with the pistol in the other hand, and her arm cradling the baby. She's ready to defend herself!

Now THAT is a little princess with older brothers!

Bad Dreams

We're supposed to be packing right now to head out of town first thing in the morning, but Adaline is rinning a high fever, so our trip is on hold/possibly cancelled. She started running the fever yesterday afternoon and awoke this morning around 4am with a temp of 104.3. I gave her some Tylenol and stayed up for a while putting cool wet cloths on her forehead, neck, etc. trying to bring the fever down faster, since it was high enough that it was making me a little nervous. After a little while she said she was feeling better and she wasn't burning up so much so I told her I would tuck her back in so she could sleep. To this she replied

"When I close my eyes me see a show (aka TV or movie) and it's scary."

I asked her what her bad dream was about and she said something about Elmo and scary monsters so I tried to help her recreate the dream with a happy twist. And she was back off to dreamland for a few more hours...

Speaking of bad dreams last Saturday night I heard Stewart one night. His closet shares the wall with one side of our room and I awoke to what sounded like someone in the closet moving around the hangers. Then I could see the hall light turn on outside my closed door. So I got up to check on him and he was laying in his bed as if he'd never been up. He'd had a bad dream and didn't want to talk about it nor did he remember being in the closet. I turned off the hall light and turned on a small lamp in his room and he was asleep again in no time.

The next morning I asked about his dream and he still didn't want to talk about it. So I told him that I'd had a bad dream once when I was about his age that was so vivid and scary for me that I've still not forgotten about it. In the dream I was with my little sister, Karen, and we were in some industrial park type complex and it was getting dark. We found a little alley between two buildings with a chain link fence at the end and we curled up to sleep there for the night. When I woke up (in my dream) her arm had fallen through the chain link fence and was being eaten by dogs. I was so terrified that I think I woke up crying and for years I could feel the awful feeling in my stomache that I felt in my dream whenever I recalled it.

Sharing my dream seemed to help Stewart feel better about sharing his and he told us that he had been dreaming about baby tigers in the bushes and they were attacking him and Adaline. He said he had jumped on one and crushed its mouth.

Are you drawing the same conclusion that I did when I heard that? I'm thinking that the noise in the closet may have been my little sleepwalker checking the bushes for tigers...

Kids' Connections

There's so much I would have loved to post over the last few months, but true to my word, I knew I wouldn't be anything close to regular about this. But for my own records I do want to post something funny that Adaline said last night.

She is recently potty trained and needed to use the bathroom, so I was in there helping her. I'd just seated her on the potty when she took both her hands and pushed her hair out of her face and said,

"Me have long hair. And you. And Jesus."

Hilarious! But, why, you ask does my daughter choose to include Jesus in this list?

A day or two earlier in the week I was fixing her hair and I can't remember if she she asked to have her hair like the boys' or their hair like hers, but whatever the question my answer was, "we can't because just girls have long hair." Immediately she looked up at the picture of Jesus on her wall and said,

"Uh-uh!! Jesus has long hair. Him a boy!"

She got me. I couldn't argue with her. And while the initial incident was funny to me, the recall last night on the potty was even funnier!

PS-I have lots of these little funny comments and you may start to see them more on my blog. It is one of my favorite parts of being a mother getting to hear the amusing things that come out of my children's mouths. I try to write them in my journal and in theirs, but I'm thinking that my blog may become my place of choice for recording them.