Conversations from Today

Sarah says, "I'm six!"
"Really, because yesterday you were five." I say.
"Oh! ... um...."  short pause, "that's cause it was my birthday yesterday."
"We didn't celebrate it though," I say, which was stupid because she's not slow.
"Oh, I have an idea!  We could celebrate it today!"
I persuaded her we should wait until her mother was here.  This conversation will probably be revisited by her some time in the future.

I was making dinner and not making it fast enough for the absolutely starving, dying of hunger Sarah.
"Aunt Miranda, do you have a brain?"
"Who doesn't have a brain?" I ask.  Just so I know who I'm competing against.
"I don't know."
"Well, what are brains for?" I wonder.  And then I wonder why I'm wondering what  five-year-old thinks.
"Oh, you need your brain for thinking."  Hmmm, well, I guess that shows me.

I don't really have effective conversations with Steven (he's only two and a half).  All discussions pretty much all go like this.
Steven:  I want milk.
Me:  We don't have any more.
Steven:  I want milk.
Me:  How about some water?
Steven:  I want milk.
Me: Oh, well, those are your only choices.  Water or nothing.
Steven:  I want milk.
Steven:  I want milk.
Steven:  Aunt Miranda, I want milk.
Steven: Aunt Miranda, Aunt Miranda, Aunt Miranda, I want milk
Me, thinking:  I want earplugs.  Or a muzzle.

Steven is a quite possessive.  We have a box of blocks that he always wants to play with, but all he does is take all of the blocks out and then put them back in.  However, he is completely infuriated if anyone else takes  out a block or tries to play with one that is awaiting a turn in the box.  Doesn't matter if it's his drooly sister borrowing one to chew or Sarah wanting to build.  So eventually, everyone ends up upset and the blocks get put away until I think I have discovered a way to avert this inevitable double-bind.  But I'm always overly optimistic.  Or a sucker.

Steven is the same with his food.  He wants it, he just doesn't want to eat it.  And he will get very angry if you feed it to Samantha because it has been sitting on his plate, untouched, for 45 minutes.

I am beginning to understand why people say that infants are so much easier.

Bath time and more

I thought about calling this post "Nakee and more", but after a few minutes, it occurred to me that people might expect a different kind of post than this one.  Anyway.....

Camden experienced his first communal bath, with his cousin Samantha.  I think Samantha enjoyed it more than he did.  

At first he thought it was pretty fun. 

 Then the abuse started.  He withstood this attack with equanimity, and the subsequent splashing too.  But when she started smacking his forehead, that's when he decided it was over.

 I love these two very different expressions.  

 Why I've given up cleaning.  

At least until the current population at our house dwindles a little.  Good thing Sarah is so good at cleaning up.  Especially with a video as motivation.  I love bribery!

Just had to show off some new apparel that we have been wanting - BYU gear!  Thanks to Aunt Melinda!  Sorry for the lousy shot - Camden wasn't all that eager to pose and kept crawling or turning away.  

And so our great adventure begins!

Did I mention I'm temporarily the caretaker of 4 kids?  One is mine.  Three are my sister's while she has a fantastic holiday in Kenya!  She only barely left today, at an hour too early to mention.

Already we have four snotty coughing kids, three poopie diapers, two fighting children, and one fallen-out-tooth.  The morning has gone WAAAY better than I had hoped.

Here is a very zonked Steven.   He crashed on the floor shortly after this.

 Sarah discovered the box of blocks and they were a hit for everyone (except the sleeping Steven).

Sarah lost her first tooth!  

During breakfast Sarah said, "I lost my tooth."
"Great," I said, "Where is it?"
"Um, I don't know."  
Hooray, I thought, the lost tooth is lost.  Somewhere in my house is a person's body part.  Dan pointed out that Camden might eat it, which revolting idea encouraged me to double my efforts to locate it.  And we found it!  In the living room carpet.  I think it looks really icky.

Sarah just told me I'm not her aunt anymore if I won't let her play with the blocks.

Oh, yeah, and did I mention that Camden is teething....

I think it's going to be a very interesting 10 days.  Hopefully, Dan will still want to be married to me when it's over.

Meeting Samantha

Camden and Samantha got reacquainted today.  

 Camden was pretty fascinated to have a friend his size.

She doesn't really need her eyeballs, does she?   

And he doesn't understand why she doesn't want to play with him.  

I just hope he has this same effect on girls until at least his senior year of high school.

Baby, it's cold outside

We had a great snow storm this last week and several days with the high no greater than 25 degrees.  We let Camden play in the snow, but he didn't really like it.  Protested quite vigorously he did.  Here he is before the torture began.

I found this great hat for Camden, but he's not usually too found of head gear.  We had to sneak it on.

8 months, a little while ago

Camden turned 8 months old shortly after Christmas.  Not that he demonstrated this while we were on vacation, but he's generally a pretty happy boy.  So fun!  Here's just a general update on what he's doing now.

He has four teeth.  Two fangs on top and his two middle teeth on the bottom.  So cute!  He can even rip off tiny chunks of peel from a tangerine.

He's still in size 1 diapers.  Because he has no butt.  He is getting a nice pot belly though.  Sadly, we may need to upgrade pretty soon because even though his bum is insignificant, his output is not.

Just after Thanksgiving, Camden figured out how to grab things with his thumb and forefinger.  Of course, everything goes into his wide open trap.  He's now quite expert.  In fact, at Andy & Kera's house (which has A LOT more traffic than ours), he had to evaluate every item in their carpet with fingers and mouth - from lint balls to grass clippings to minuscule candy wrapper parts.  He was better than a vacuum cleaner.

He's a quick crawler now.  And he'll race down the hallway with a sock or toy or whatever in his hand.

Camden pulls himself up on everything and walks around holding on to furniture.  It grosses me out, but it seems like his favorite item to climb up is the toilet.  I keep hoping the novelty will wear off and he won't always be zippy-crawling to the bathroom and check out the porcelain goddess.  But now he's discovered the flush lever and he's more intrigued than ever.

He loves to toddle around holding on to your fingers.  Dan used to refer to Camden's walking as the "zombie shuffle".  Dan says Camden's locomotion is more of an ape walk now.  He actually does keep his balance pretty well, he just doesn't have a lot of confidence in going it alone.

Current favorite foods are sweet potatoes, avocados (love it when they are 29 cents at Aldis!), peas, and apricots.  He's a pretty good eater.  He used to think Cheerios were the best thing since pacifiers.  Until we started feeding him bagels and toast.

Camden is such a curious boy!  Everyday he sees something he never noticed before and he wants to learn all about it.  Which typically means seeing, touching, and tasting.  I'm trying not to be a Nazi parent and keep him away from everything, but I do wish he wouldn't try to put EVERYTHING in his mouth.

The Lloyd Shirt comes out of the closet

Way back when our families were smaller and we used to try to get together for Christmas, my brothers and sisters and parents had a Christmas service project of sorts where we all helped sort thrift store clothing rejects (think multi-colored plaid polyester pants size 40 waist, 25 leg; logo shirts of all types and styles; bold color wide-striped mu-mu; real leisure suits of bile-inducing print, etc) for shipment to needy people in Africa, I think.  We had a great time!  And we even got a couple of souvenirs.

Like Dan's Lloyd shirt.  Which reappeared, after a long absence, for the occasion of celebrating Dan's birthday.

We went bowling with some friends and Dan says this is the closest thing he has to a bowling shirt.  I have to say, it certainly made Dan a little less concerned about Camden puking on him.  We had a great time bowling.  During our second game, the boys (Dan, Randy and Skylar) got into a competition to see who could roll the ball the slowest (since their machine actually told you the speed of your ball in miles per hour).  Skylar won - he was able to throw his ball 3 mph.  And it still knocked over some pins.  It's a little humiliating to admit the boys still got more points that game than Maddie or I.

Camden really enjoyed himself and was just fascinated with everything.  I think we intercepted most stuff from making it to his mouth.  Dan and I both tried really hard not to be concerned about what he might have crawled through on the floor.  We didn't even sanitize him when we got home.  But we did change his clothes.

Hooray for Christmas

We had a marvelous Christmas with Kera and Andy and kids.  Dan's father and little sister were present as well, which made it extra special.

Christmas morning festivities were enjoyed by all!  And may I say, Kera's decorations FAR surpass ours.

 

Kera made this adorable Charlie Brown shirt for Camden!  I love it!  It's a little big, but that just means he can wear it for a long time to come!  Or until he grows hair.

 

Camden admiring the fantastic new shoes he received from Aunt Rebecca.  He also got the most amazing little quiet book and a textures book - which kept him entertained all the way through Relief Society last week.  He loves chomping down on the bead dog collar.  

I think I was more excited for the presents Camden received than I was for myself.  I did get some great loot (with which I was well pleased), but it was thoroughly delightful to open presents for Camden and know how much he would enjoy them.  Or at least, I would enjoy him playing with or wearing it!

Camden copies cats his cousin Matthew.  Aren't they handsome boys?!

Charlotte is such a cute girl.  She and Camden had a mostly good time crawling around and climbing up on stuff together.  

Until she made eye contact with Camden.  

Then he would start crying.

Christmas is always such an exhausting time!  Emma and Matthew sacked out on the couches while we grown up ladies enjoyed a chick-flick and the grown-up boys discharged firearms at a distant location.  I think we were all satisfied with our morning activities.

  

Camden loved playing with his cousins' toys.  Climbing aboard this sweet ride (actually while it was inert on its side) kept him entertained long enough for me to make a batch of almond rocha candy that didn't quite turn out.  Oh, well.  It still got eaten.

It was a great time.  I'm so thankful for my family and for what the Christmas season is really all about!