Kid Stories, Ice and Snow

Elijah

Elijah is doing a lot of really cute things these days. He's just a sweet boy. He's also hyper and crazy, but he's a sweet soul. Often he'll be walking by and he'll randomly stop and say, "Mom?" And I'll look at him and he'll smile sweetly and say, "I love you." No manipulation involved. He's just a sweet boy.

On Sunday I had a Primary Inservice after church, which was fine since they fed me lunch. Rob was also invited since he's the Bishopric member over Primary. He came in late, of course, because of his other meetings (no set meeting, but does it matter? There's always more people to talk to and more things to do), but he was able to leave at the same time we did. Hurray! The kids and I drove home in the van and Rob in the car, and we arrived back at home maybe a minute or two before Rob did. (That was an awkward sentence, sorry. Re-word it in your head for me.) I had just helped the kids out of their coats when Rob walked in the door. Elijah was so excited to see Daddy and he said, "Daddy! You don't have any missions today?"

I have taught Elijah to love the word "Sweet," since I say it a lot. 'Cept he can't say it right, so it comes out "Fweet." And that cracks me up.

Elijah has just started drawing things. It's a fun stage, and he comes up with lots of funny and/or cute things. He drew this picture of our family:

I love the eyebrows! I think the people are (L to R): Miciah, Daddy, Elijah, Mommy, and Teancom. But of course you already knew that. It's so obvious from the detail of the drawing.

And this is a picture he drew at church. He says it's a girl, but he drew a very non-girl feature on her:

And I'm not sure why his people are missing arms.

Teancom

Teancom is often a dog or a tiger or a lion these days. Today he was a shark at the breakfast table, with his arms out in front of him like a big mouth snapping shut. His little growly face is adorable. ... I remember a few years back when my sister-in-law talked about her children going through the dog phase where they wouldn't respond to their names and they wanted to eat off the floor and they wouldn't talk, they'd just bark, stuff like that. And I thought her kids must be crazy. So it only figures that Teancom is hitting the same stage. My other kids really didn't have an animal stage. Miciah did have a whole 2 years or so of a Princess stage, where she demanded I call her Ariel, or whatever princess she was for the day. But no animals. Teancom will talk in this high-pitched "dog voice", which is adorable. And he'll crawl around on all fours in this frog-like crawl where he moves his legs at the same time (instead of how a normal crawl goes, where you move each leg alternately). He will crawl like this at church, even, and then I'll have to walk behind him so no one steps on him.

Teancom has also now adopted his brother's "I'm Angry" face. I'll walk over and ask Teancom what's wrong and he'll inevitably say something like, "My Daddy says..." and then something that he can or can't do. Sometimes it's true, but sometimes it's off the wall. Last night I went into the boys' room to tuck them in. I first tucked in Elijah and promised him a treat under his pillow if he went to bed good (he barely earned the treat, but then this morning he was upset that the treat wasn't popcorn. I guess you just can't win). Then I talked to Teancom who declared that he was angry at daddy. It's all slow and sad-like when he talks: "My...Daddy...says...no...treat...under...pillow." I have to laugh when he talks like this. It's just adorable. I promised Teancom a treat under his pillow and told him that his Daddy probably hadn't said anything like that. Cute boy.

Miciah

Miciah is a master negotiator. I say negotiator to be nice; really she's a swindler. She'll see something that Elijah has that she wants, and she'll "trade" with him. Last week it was a large cardboard box. I thought Elijah would have a good time with it, so I offered it to him. He was excited. An hour or so later I saw the box in Miciah's room and said, "Miciah, why do you have Elijah's box?" She said, "I traded him for it. I gave him that snowman that he likes." The snowman she's referring to is a little snowman not more than an inch tall. ... So let me get this straight: You traded a large cardboard box for a 1-inch snowman? And Elijah AGREED to this trade? Elijah seems not to notice that he's just been swindled, and I'm not sure if that makes the whole transaction cuter or just wronger.

So a few days ago Rob got a birthday package from his lovely Aunt Lisa. In it there was a bubble wrap bag. I cut it in half and gave it to the two older kids, but the halves weren't quite even. I had Elijah choose which one he wanted while they were both behind my back and he couldn't tell which was larger. He happened to choose the larger of the two. Miciah, of course, thought this was VERY unfair. I told her that it was the way it was and she should get over it. I saw this look come over her and I knew what she was thinking. I said, "Miciah, if you negotiate a trade with Elijah, you will be in so much trouble. There is absolutely NO benefit to Elijah for trading for the smaller piece." (You could perhaps imagine SOME benefit to Elijah for trading, say, the box for the snowman. But the larger piece of bubble wrap for the smaller piece? No.) She was a little upset with me, but I stood firm. I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, Elijah was sitting on the floor, happily playing with the smaller piece of bubble wrap. He looked at me and said sweetly, "Miciah gave me this!" I was so mad! I mean, it was funny, but come on! Miciah ended up with a time-out and her piece was almost thrown away. I gave Elijah back the larger piece and told him he was NOT to let Miciah "trade" with him.

Miciah is also doing a lot of creative spelling and stuff lately. Some of my favorites:

A school project. On the top it showed a drawing of what was obviously a guitar. Underneath the drawing it said:

"I wuood make a guttor if I were you. heres how. frst you get some string. Then you tiy them on to a thing that looks like a guttor."

Why, yes, that IS how you make a guitar.

A random drawing from church:

"Ding Dong eny Buney Homse"

We have re-done our Wish Lists. We keep a running wish list and then another that's a Wish List items Received. We also keep track of who gave us the item that we received, and it's a nice way to remember that we're very blessed, and that we already have a lot of great things. Miciah wanted me to add some things she wanted to our wish list. I told her to make her own. So she did. It took her about 10 minutes to come up with it. Afterwards Rob said, "Well, that didn't take her long, did it?" This is what the list says:

Avatar Wii Game

New camping chare

Bloons

Box of Tishoos

Math Book

New clip bord - Big

TumBleena-BarBe

bag - medeum

Poster Bord's

Arm and nee pads

New prinsass crown

Hart nlekls

hart clipon

earings Lowder

AlArm! - That glows in

The dark A rander

stuft Moon and stars

Hanker chip

fusy Duck New

socker Ball

I've been reminding her that a wish list is for wishes and that she should not expect to receive any of these things any time soon.

Other Things

Well, the kids are enjoying Day 2 of snow and ice. Miciah had another snow day today, declared a snow day last night. How often does that happen? Rob also chose to work from home today, which was a good call. Turning on the news and watching the cars on the snow-covered freeway. If that's what the FREEWAY looks like, what do the other roads look like? I know what ours looks like. It's not a road. It's just a stretch of ice and snow.

The kids got all bundled up and Rob sent them on their way to play, with no intention of going out there himself. Then Teancom looked up at him and said, "Daddy you come play with me?" Rob walked in to the living room and said, "How do you turn that down?" You don't. Evolutionarily cute children get their way every time. Teancom is outside with Daddy right now. While Rob is trying to chip out his car and shovel the walk, Teancom is repeatedly eating snow and then promptly spitting it out. What a strange child (just stop eating it if you don't like it!).

The storm has stopped, but I'm wondering how fast they'll be able to get the roads passable. It wouldn't shock me if tomorrow is another snow day.

Some images: (This storm isn't near as pretty as the February Ice Storm of 2007, but still, it's beautiful.)

You can't tell, but in the 3rd picture, the sun is shining. The first two were taken before it stopped snowing, so the fuzziness is snow flakes. It was snowing at one point at the rate of 2 inches an hour.

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm (yes, Dad, I know you're warm in California).