Oh, how they grow

I thought I'd post a couple of movies so you can see how the boys are growing! Benji is so big! He is six and a half months old, and can almost crawl. He has been teething, and quite the slobber-puss, as illustrated below.



This one is Leo's dramatic death scene. I don't know who taught him this, but when anything bonks him, he does this very serious fainting thing. I find it quite funny.



Gabe is making great strides in some important areas too. He has started riding a bike without training wheels ... after several weeks of me jogging behind him, holding his jacket, he just decided he could do it, and took off. He's had a couple of spills, but it hasn't phased him. He also lost his fear of water, and has been dunking and jumping off the side at the indoor pool. I'm really proud of him!

Vacation to Zion

We just returned from a much anticipated trip to St. George and Zion. We had a lot of fun and got a lot of sun (all the better, because it has been snowing HARD here for the past two days. Spring has not yet reached the Great White North). I was nervous about the drive, but it went really well, as long as we took breaks every hour. I was nervous about pulling mom and dad's trailer, but that too went well, and was soooooo worth the soft bed at night, and the sink to wash in.

I even used the trailer in St. George, when the kids and dad slept in the hotel room, and baby Benji screamed in the middle of the night. It was a nice retreat, and took a lot of stress off of my nights. The hotel had a pool and a hot tub, which occupied a good part of each day for me and the kids, while Jeff attended a conference. We also explored the many city parks that St. George had to offer. My favorite was the Slick Rock City Park, which had a great climbing wall, and beautiful xeriscaping. The kids loved the Hidden Valley Park, which had fun water features, play structures, and this weird bouncy flooring.

After three days in St. George, we headed with mom to Zion National Park, my old stomping grounds. We spent four glorious days there, camping by the river, and taking the shuttle into the canyon to do day hikes. Gabe was the best little hiker! He really enjoyed the cliffs, stairs, and slickrock. Leo and Benji hitched a ride on mom and dad's backs and fronts, respectively. We also spent some time playing on the river in the sand, and splashing in the cold green water.

For those doubter, the park shuttle was wonderful. We hardly moved the truck once we pitched camp. It was so fun to hop on the bus and let the cool sweet canyon air blow through the windows and onto my face. We didn't worry about parking. We didn't worry about locking doors or leaving the vehicle. The canyon was a lot quieter too. Gabe participated in the Junior Ranger Program, and earned his badge after attending a ranger program and answering a lot of questions about canyon wildlife. The last night we were at Zion, we walked over to the Imax Theater outside the gate, and saw a GIANT screening of Horton Hears a Who. It was a fun end to a fun vacation.
















Leo taking a little snooze during our hike to the Emerald Pools





















Gabe and Leo at Weeping Rock, with Mom doing a little rock climbing in the background.





















We loved having the extra baby-holding arms around!

Candy

I went to a Candy Expo in South Jordan yesterday. It was like going to Willie Wonka's chocolate factory. The Expo was open only to candy professionals, of which I am one, since I started my sucker company, Edible Art. (It used to be called Savvy Suckers, but I couldn't ever remember how to spell Savvy, so I changed it. I haven't yet made a single dollar, but it is still a company!) The Expo had 200 vendors, all having to do with candy or the confectionery food industry in some way. There were tables spread with chocolate samples, all with different cocoa concentrations, and from different types of beans. There were piles of vanilla beans, and jars of different types of vanilla extracts to sample. There was a ginger table, a table to sample prickly pear juice concentrate. I found a company that sells silver and gold food coloring, and got some jelly beans with sparkle to take home. I found a company that is going to send me a sample of their pear-chamomile flavoring (wouldn't that make a great sucker?). There was a table with high-fiber chocolate. Another table had beautiful fruit-flavored marzipan. One guy tried to sell me an additive that makes hard candy taste carbonated. I brought home several samples of a two-sided hard candy (apple caramel). The apple side tasted cold, and the caramel side tasted warm. No kidding, it really did. It was a feast for the senses.

It was fun to experience the industry too. There weren't oompa-loompas running around, or Keebler elves (although the nice gentleman at the Keebler table did look somewhat elfish). The body types ranged from thin to soft around the middle, and I didn't notice an over abundance of tooth decay. I did see a lot of very happy people. As the Keebler gentleman put it, if you can't have fun selling candy, you can't have fun!

I am Elizabeth Bennet

I always knew it ...


According to this quiz, I am Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! I am intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. I have a good head on my shoulders, and oftentimes find myself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. I take great pleasure in many things. I am proficient in nearly all of them, though I will never own it. Lest I seem too perfect, I have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves me very ill indeed.

Take the quiz.

Words and School

Leo just asked me if he could watch Titty Titty Dang Dang. I laughed so hard, and he looked really confused. I need to start a dictionary of Gilbert-Kidisms, but it is hard to think of them because they are mostly part of my vocabulary now. I was talking to Gabe yesterday, and I told him that Benji "Slided off the couch." Jeff corrected me, "slid off the couch," he said. It is funny, because I love words, and I am generally very particular about how they are used. I started talking incorrectly to help the kids understand me without a lot of explanation for every sentence. Some days it seems like it takes 20 minutes just to get my meaning established for one idea. Another conversation this morning went something like this:

Gabe: Leo is using my doctor toys!
Me: They aren't your toys, they belong to our whole family.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you and daddy.
Me: My point is you have to share them.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you or daddy.
Me: We bought them.
Gabe: But you gave them to me for a present, and you can't take back a present.
Me: Okay, the doctor toys don't belong to me or daddy, we gave them to you.
Gabe: So I don't have to share them (He walks out of the room in victory, and I hear Leo scream in agony as another toy is ripped from his grasp).

This is going on while I am changing a diaper and trying to pick spilled cereal off the floor. It is sometimes infuriating how the point of the conversation wanders, and I forget what I was originally trying to accomplish. I'm not sure if he does it on purpose or not. I don't want to think of him as manipulative, but every child is to some degree. Gabe is a talker. He never stops. And it isn't the kind of conversation that requires an "Uhuh, uhuh." He wants me engaged, and he challenges my responses if he doesn't think I'm paying attention (which often, I'm not). When he was younger, we would have "Quiet For Five Minute" times, where I would lock myself in another room for five minutes to give my ears and brain a break. I wonder if I was like that as a child. I've always loved words ... will Gabe too? He sure knows how to use them.

I registered Gabe for kindergarten this week. That was a weird experience. We went to the school district office, and after 45 minutes of waiting in line and filling out paperwork, they gave Gabe a screening. He had to identify letters and numbers, find rhyming words, and do alliteration (find objects that start with the same sound). He did fine except for the alliteration, in which he flopped. Then ... here comes the weird part ... they gave him a SCORE! They scored my child! And it wasn't the preschool, "Gabe is such a wonderful person" scoring. It was academically OBJECTIVE! I think this is a small taste of what real school is going to be like. It makes me nervous!

Mee Mee Mee

Gabe has lately been into "experiments" in which he mixes liquids, soaps, spices, milk, and whatever else is handy and not bolted down in a big bowl. As we speak he is working on a potion including juice, wonder bread, poppy seeds, salt, steak seasoning, cake sprinkles, and dish soap. It actually smells very interesting. I used to let him do it in recycled plastic bottles, but he would want to keep the potions for days up in his room, which would make me nervous. When he does it in a big bowl, I pretend to need the bowl for something, and chuck the brew after a few hours of it floating in my kitchen.

I remember "cooking" when I was little. I would mash up bananas in a bowl, then put them in the freezer to bake. Or I would mix raisins, cheerios, and marshmallows (actually I would eat the marshmallows) and put the dish in drawers around the house to bake. I'm sure my mom appreciated finding those little surprises around the house as much I like Gabe's experiments.


Spring has sprung in our front yard. In front of the two-foot drift of snow, our crocuses has peaked out! Yay! I hope they survive the next snow storm!

Walkie-Talkies

Papa gave Gabe walkie-talkies for his birthday. Today Gabe is trying to teach Leo how to use them. He keeps telling Leo to take his walkie-talkie into the other room, then he shouts into his walkie-talkie "Come in! Come in!" And then Leo comes running in to the room where Gabe is, because Gabe told him to. We've tried explaining to Leo three times that "come in" means "talk to me" but he is a very literal kid.