Classified Information

I told Carter this morning that Aunt Taryn heard about his powers on my blog and suggested that he could be a dynamic duo with his cousin Stryder (who can climb doorframes BTW).  He thought that sounded great, but then stated:

"Don't send any more blobs or I can't be a super hero anymore.  We have to protect my secret identity."

Of course I was very concerned and asked if he thought I should delete my "blob" from yesterday.  He said that I could keep it there "cause it could be information to him", and that I can also inform everyone that we found another power...jumping really far.   Unfortunately, this will be my last post on the matter as all further information is going to be considered CLASSIFIED.

Super Carter!

Earlier today Carter decided that...dun...duh...duh..duuuuh...he's becoming a super hero.  

Carter:  "Mom, can you put something in the green bucket?  Don't show me what it is!"

Mom:  "Okaaay...why?"

Carter:  "I have to see if that's one of my super powers.  I already know I have a sense cause earlier today Meleah was going to throw something at me and I sensed it even though she was standing behind me."

After 5 or 6 guesses (all of them wrong) he decided X-ray vision is not one of his powers.

Later, he was attempting to put his 12 year old cousin Caden into a headlock and found that super strength is also not one of his powers.   

After a day of experimenting we discovered that Carter's powers are:

1.  Running really fast.

2.  Having "a sense"

3.  Being a good helper.  

We're still on the lookout for more, so we'll keep you posted if we discover any new ones.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

When I drop Carter off at school, I make a point of saying "I love you" repeatedly. Carter boldly ignores me until I make a sad face.  Then he mumbles a begrudging "I love you too."  Today that was followed by "Stop trying to make me love you!"

"Belle was chasing me all day and I LIKED it."  

"I'm half an adult."

Instead of simply answering my questions, Carter prefers to give me clues -
Mom:  "Who spilled the rice crispies?" 
Carter:  "What is your youngest daughter's name?"

 "I'm gonna marry Heabenly Father."

"When I grow up I'm gonna get big boobs to feed my baby."

"Once shadow shotted London and he died for real life!"  I guess that's why she's afraid of shadows!

"Can I have some jello (aloe) on my sunburn?"  Can I have some jello (gel) in my hair today?"

Meleah thinks that bras are called shoulders (no, I haven't corrected her) so while we were walking through Kohls the other day she exclaimed, "Wow!  Look at all these shoulders!" 

Meleah is very excited for her next Birthday (even though it's not until May), but somehow we went from "On my next Birthday I'm gonna be in preschool/On my next Birthday I'm gonna be 4..." to "On my next Birthday I'm gonna be a Mom." or "On my next Birthday I'm gonna have big, big, big, big, big boobs!"  I sure hope not!

Meleah is afraid of loud noises and has become very adept at covering her ears with her hands.  I'm not just talking about motorcycles, fireworks, and gun ranges.  She covers her ears when Daddy's singing, Mommy's ralphing, Lydia's crying, etc.  In her defense, all those things can be pretty darn loud. 

Every day when I put Meleah down for a nap, I sing her 3 songs (unless she whines, then she only gets 2).  Every day I ask her which songs she would like me to sing, and every day she answers "I Love to See the Temple, The Wheels on the Bus, then The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  Don't even think about mixing them up, either! 

Every morning Cameron brings me my robe, my glasses, and the remote while chanting either "umi umi" (team umizoomi) or "ues gues" (Blues Clues, with accompanying twinkle stars hands).  He then drags his blanket, pillow, and ba-ba in front of the TV and watches while I attempt to go back to sleep. 

Don't make Cameron angry or he'll yell while forcefully sticking his hand out at you (as if he has the force or something).

Cameron is an excellent dancer.  I need to catch it on film, because it's HILARIOUS.  When he gets his hips and shoulders going at the same time, I DIE laughing.

Ever since he was really little Cameron has raised his hand in response to Randall's questions like "Who missed Daddy?", "Who wants ice cream?", etc.  Now he not only raises his hand, but exclaims "Me!"  The funny thing is, he responds exactly the same no matter what the question is.  For example:  "Who has a stinky in his diaper?", "Who wants to go nigh-night?", "Who thinks Daddy is a doo-doo head?"... "Me!"

Bye Bye Baby Tooth!

Lydia realized yesterday morning that she had a loose tooth.  She's been waiting YEARS for this to happen, so she was super excited.  After a lot of diligent wiggling during church and many informative discussions with her older brother

Lydia:  Is it going to hurt?

Carter:  It feels like when you're gonna have a baby.

she started to get a little frustrated that it hadn't come out yet.  I tried to explain to her that sometimes it takes more than a day to get the tooth out, but she was determined to have to tooth fairy come that night.  Fortunately, after a little wiggling help from some cousins, Aunt Jenny came to the rescue with some dental floss and pulled it right out.  She didn't cry, scream or anything.  I wish I could say I was as brave when I've had my babies.  The tooth fairy even remembered to come by and bring $2, which she carried around all morning until it was time to go to school.

Owies

I've debated back and forth about whether I should write this post or not, but I've decided that these are memories.  Memories that keep me up at night thinking about what could have happened, but memories no less.  First of all...when I was really little, I seemed to have a propensity for getting burned.  One time I pushed a chair up to the stove to help my sister make dinner.  Unfortunately, I decided to stir the pot that was on the back burner and not the skillet that was in the front.  I reached over and of course, the skillet tipped onto my stomach and burned a half circle into my nightgown and through to my skin.

Another time I was helping put away dishes (see what a helpful child I was?).   I climbed onto the wet counter so that I could reach the top shelf.  Just as one of my siblings was opening the oven to get dinner, I slipped and fell right on top of the oven door.  Well, it appears that my children have the same tendencies when it comes to being around things that are "hot, hot, hot!" 

The first incident occurred when I was using what I used to consider an awesome end-of-the-island outlet to plug in my griddle and cook tortillas.  While I was on the phone with Randall, Cameron decided to come along and pull on the cord.  The skillet, tortillas and all came down right on top of him.  I was freaking out, and pretty much just screamed to Randall that Cameron had pulled a hot griddle onto himself before hanging up on him.  Luckily he was close to home, so he didn't have to wait too long to see how Cam was.  It took a while for Grandpa Stewart and I to see exactly where he was burned, and we were amazed that he didn't seem to have any large burns.  Luckily his shirt protected his chest, where the flat part of the skillet was resting, and it miraculously missed his face altogether.  He still has some interesting scars.  Carter calls the scar on his hand the winking smiley face scar.

A couple of months later while we were camping in Manti, there was an even scarier situation.  We arrived to the campsite later than planned (as usual) so Randall had to set up the tent in the dark.  I was watching the kids by the fire/helping them roast marshmallows.  Needless to say, this was a pretty stressful task for me to do alone, so I immediately got up to take Cameron to the tent once I heard it was finished.  Lydia was sitting on the camp chair next to me roasting marshmallows, and I told her I'd be right back.  Less than a second later, I heard a crash and looked over to see Lydia IN THE FIRE.  She had tried to climb down from her camp chair, and it had collapsed and catapulted her into the fire.  I practically threw Cameron to the ground and grabbed Lydia as fast as I could (which seemed like hours).  It was really hard to see in the dark where she had been burned but in the end she only had a few tiny burns on her fingers and an inch long line on her wrist.  If any other kid had fallen into the fire like that it would have been much worse, but Lydia grabbed onto a big log that was sticking out of the coals and was able to hold herself up with her massive upper body strength.  I still can't believe how blessed we were that her hair didn't catch on fire even though it was down, and that she didn't have any serious burns.

On a side note, by the time we put the kids to bed that night Lydia had already asked me five times if we were going to be able to roast marshmallows again the next day.  She was obviously a little less traumatized than I was.   

Both of these situations could have been SO MUCH WORSE.  I keep thinking, what if it had been a crockpot full of hot stew instead of a griddle?  What if it had been a roaring fire instead of burned down coals?  Thoughts like these keep me up at night, and serve no purpose.  When I was little I was ALWAYS scared at bedtime.  I remember my Mom once telling me that there's no point to living in fear.  Most likely no one will break into our house and murder us (my fear as a child), so why waste your time thinking about what COULD happen?  If it's going to happen, it will happen whether you worry about it or not.  Although my fears have changed somewhat over the years (I'm still a little scared of being murdered in my sleep) they're still just as much of a waste of time as they were back then.  I think it's important that we try to be as careful as we can with our kids and try to prevent anything bad from happening to them, but in the end we don't know everything that will happen in their lives.  I've just got to have faith that Heavenly Father will get me and my kids through anything that we may have to face.  On that somewhat cryptic note, I'll leave you with a bit of advice...
1.  Don't ever plug ANYTHING into those end-of-the-island outlets!
2.  Don't let your kids sit too close to the fire!
3.  Don't let this post give you more things to incessantly worry about!  ;)

Lagoon

We had tons of fun at Lagoon on the Friday before school started (even though it was crazy busy).  I managed to hold down everything I ate that day, so that was awesome.  Grandma and Grandpa Stewart went with us, and I don't know what we would have done without them.  We probably would have left the park about 6 hours sooner than we did. 

It's so weird to see my kids on rides that I rode when I was their age.  If I wasn't so lazy, I would find some of the old family pics and do a little then and now comparison.  Maybe next year...

Meleah and Cameron pretty much only liked the cars and the boats.  I did force them on the whales a few times though...you know you've gotta get your money's worth!

Carter was pretty bored on the boats, but was not quite ready to go on Wicked or the Colossus.  He did like the Bat and the Dino Drop this year though.  Baby steps people!

 Grandma managed to capture a picture of us right before we got blasted by a waterfall.

Everyone was pretty tuckered out at the end of a very exciting day!

Back to School!

I'm SO SAD that summer is over, and I have to be a responsible mother again.  Honestly, how does the summer fly by so fast?  Fortunately, the kids are very happy to be back in school, and they have excellent teachers.  I had a minor panic attack thinking about how Lydia's going to get around in Kindergarten with only one teacher to help her (in preschool she had 3), but the teacher said everything went great today.  Here's to hoping that they continue to love school this much!