Now three

Once upon a time, I had a baby. And three years after that baby was born, he turned three!!!

All of us have been excited about this birthday for months. I think Joseph told us every day starting when he was 2 1/2 that he was going to have a birthday and have another bus cake. He and I went to a few super cute birthday parties for his friends and it made me really want to plan a party for him. And, after several weeks of talking about it, he started to be excited about turning three (he spent a long time insisting that he was two and would be "forever").

As it turned out, it was sort of a low-key day. Because we went to Utah, I put off party planning until it was too late. (And to be honest, the idea of having a guest list stressed me out. Do you invite older and younger siblings? If you invite one kid, do you invite that kid's neighbors too? What sort of activities do you even do? Once I realized there were 17 children that I had to invite to not have my conscience searing me, my conscience relieved me of birthday duties altogether.) I had also flirted with the idea of having sprinklers and cupcakes for the neighbor kids, but the thunderstorm forecast (albeit incorrectly) made me decide against it. So, just decorations, presents, playing, and cake.

The night before was sort of hard because I had a lot of decorations I still wanted to put up and presents to wrap (ie cover with blankets), and all he wanted was for me to stay with him. 9:30, 10, 10:30, on and on and on. Kevin was at the store getting a few last-minute things, so he couldn't help.  I knew that what my son needed more than streamers was love and attention (in fact, I could almost hear President Uchtdorf's voice in my head telling me that) . . . but I knew that he would appreciate the streamers a lot more the next morning than a bit of love and attention. Thankfully, he finally went to sleep so we could finish getting ready for the day.

And then . . . it was his birthday! We had streamers dangling right outside his bedroom door, so when he left his room it was the first thing he saw. "Oh," he said in a tone of happy yet subdued surprise. Then he saw his stuffed animals waiting to wish him happy birthday on the stairs. "Oh," he said again in that chipper voice.

And then, there were presents! As in years past, we used a combination of wrapping paper and blankets to hide the presents. (And since this year he got a few presents that might have been less exciting [new sheets, new socks, and new underwear], we made sure to put those in the most exciting wrapping paper. For the record, he is still excited he got those for his birthday.)

As a side note, my life got so much easier when I realized balloons on the ground were just as good a decoration  as balloons on the wall.

After opening presents (thanks, by the way, to grandparents, aunts, and uncles for making sure he opened fun things too!), it was breakfast time. While Joseph was eating breakfast I decided to get started on the cake before it got too hot to use the oven. By this point I had decided to make a smallish chocolate cake from cake mix, use the remaining batter to make some chocolate cupcakes, and then some cupcakes from yellow cake mix. That way we could still share cupcakes with friends at a potluck the next day.

At first, things were going well. Made the chocolate cake and cupcakes. Got the cupcakes out of the muffin tin and put the yellow cake batter in. Made the yellow cupcakes. Got them out of the oven and then tried to get the cupcakes out of the muffin tin. But I had forgotten to regrease it so they came out crumbly. I planned on texting a few neighbors to come over and eat them (and maybe have a mini party while they were in here), but Joseph headed out the door right then, so I followed him out with the plate in tow. When we went out there was maybe one other kid, but when I stepped back in for a minute to dry my hair (I had taken a shower sometime in the midst of all the cooking), I watched as about ten kids came out of nowhere and swarmed the plate. It was amazing. And hey, I didn't want those cupcakes.

But the cupcake drama was not yet finished. Earlier, Joseph had been nibbling on chocolate cupcakes, so I put the plate on top of the fridge. But I forgot about it there until I opened the freezer, which knocked the plate off balance and sent most of the cupcakes to the floor. If Joseph hadn't cried, I might have.

Anyway, other than that, it was a great birthday! Just a nice, regular, low-key day. After Kevin came home, we ate pasta for dinner, and then it was time for cake!

So, on Joseph's birthday last year, I made this cake for him.

And, although he didn't appreciate it so much on his birthday, nearly every day since he's told me about it.  So, even though I suggested other cakes, he ended up getting one like this for his 3rd birthday:

Why is it that when I'm doing things like spelling words with sprinkles, I hear the phrase "good, better, best" playing through my head? Also, how many bus cakes do you have to make in a year before they actually start looking better each time?

After a fun evening eating cake and non-melted ice cream (thanks, new fridge!), Joseph went to bed. "Will it be my birthday tomorrow?" (Or the next day, or the next day, or the next day.)

No, but most of the decorations are still up.

Joseph with a birthday blower

We sure like him.

The couch

Until I cleaned it out ten minutes ago, I think our couch operated as a Room of Requirement for our home. If we had really wanted something, we probably could have reached down and found it.

Except we never used it. So it was just a Vanishing Cabinet instead. One with lots and lots of hiding places.

I still remember the time about a year into our marriage that we were sitting watching a movie when Kevin reached down into the couch and pulled out a flattened Diet Coke can. Not from us. Or from anyone since we had acquired the couch.

Or the time there was a toy car there. Also not from us.

Anyway, I was looking for a dry erase marker and suspected it might be in the couch. I didn't find it, but I found these things instead:

-A baby toy
-a blue pen
-a black pen
-a purple pen (I thought I lost it in Relief Society more than two years ago. This is also weird because I have looked in that part of the couch before and never found a purple pen.)
-a red marker
-a blue scrunchie
-a white scrunchie
-a black hair thing
-an old cell phone
-two bobby pins
-another pen or two
-a medal
-a pretzel

The strangest thing is that some of these must have been missing for at least a while, but I know it hasn't been that long since I found a little ball in that part of the couch, and I didn't see any of this junk that time. At least, I thought it was that part of the couch. I also sort of feel like this couch has new hiding places each time I look. (Fyi, this isn't even the couch cushion part of the couch. It's some back flap that only opens up when the seats are reclined. So I don't even know how things got there.)

So where did I find the dry erase marker? In the other couch. Under a cushion I had already checked.

I think that just proves that our couches are magical.

"Why?" "Z."

As Joseph has made the transition into three-hood, he's started doing a few very three-ish things.

The first is the jokes. I don't know how long this one was going on before it finally hit -- he was telling jokes! Unfortunately, we've only told him lame jokes his entire life, so that's what we get in return.

For example, as I was putting him in his car seat, he said, "We're not in our car. We're in . . . Peter's car! We're in . . . Hudson's car! Is that funny?" And then he laughed hysterically.

I guess it beats knock-knock jokes.

The other one is all the "why" questions. "Why is there a car next to us? Why is it dinner time? Why does it get dark?" Why? Why? Why? And of course, no answer is going to satiate his curiosity. He's learning a lot, but it comes at the expense of his parents' sanity.

Anyway, yesterday I had an epiphany. I think he asked, "Why are you eating lunch?" "Why are you hungry?" and so on and so on. I gave some answer and he asked, "Why?"
And then, I said in an explanatory voice, "Z."
"Why?"
"Z."
"Why?"
"Z."
"Y?"
"Z."
"Y?"
"Q."
He then laughed and sang the ABC's. After he finished singing he went back to asking "Why?" but now it was a game to hear me say "Z" instead of some convoluted explanation. This trick will probably only work when he's in a good mood, but at least it's something.

Again, it beats knock-knock jokes. Well, maybe.

"I want the Africa song"

"This one is my favorite."

More words about our trip

I used up most of my pictures about the trip, but here are a few other things I remembered:

-It was rainy more than half the time. Perhaps if we had checked the weather forecast, we would have known that. But we didn't, or it changed by the time we got there, so we packed as if it would be sunny and warm. At one point while we were packing, we sort of asked each other, "Should we bring jackets?" And then we sort of responded to each other, "Nah. It's May." I guess we didn't really need them since of course there were jackets lying around, but it was funny how conscientious we were about not bringing them in the first place.

-Besides dealing with rain, we also dealt with sickness about half the time as well. It seemed like just about any time there was a chance for us to meet a new baby, we were sick enough that we decided it'd be a bad idea. And then the next day we'd be feeling better. Back and forth with the starts of colds and then the sudden disappearance and then a lot of unexplained crankiness from Joseph which then turned out to be caused by a sore throat or major congestion, on and on and on. The Saturday we were with my family, I woke up with a horrible sore throat and a nasty head cold. That evening, we were visiting family down in Lindon. I had sort of isolated myself on the couch with a book when my little cousin came up to me and started poking my face all over. It was fine until she stuck her fingers in my mouth. "Um, you're going to want to wash those because my mouth is kind of yucky," I told her. She looked at me for a moment and then stuck those same fingers back into her mouth. I never found out if she caught my cold or not. Hope not. Her mom had a baby the day before, after all.

-On our way back to Michigan, we flew Southwest. It was the first time in a long time either of us had flown Southwest, so we didn't realize that we should check in as soon as possible to get decent seats. By the time we remembered, we were at the back of Zone B or the front of Zone C. We were sort of counting people taking pity on us so that we could still sit together. On our flight to Chicago, we ended up boarding pretty early on because we had a small child. On the second flight, we stood off to the side while special people got to pre-board, when all of the sudden one of the officials pointed at us.

"You guys get to board now because pregnancy is a temporary disability, and he (pointing to Kevin) did it to you." Hard to argue with that.

-Of course, the hard thing about being first to board is that it means you are sitting still for longer, which is hard for a toddler. So we did everything we could to entertain Joseph including starting a bedtime routine for him. We first modeled it by putting one of his stuffed animals to bed. After pretending to brush its teeth, we asked Joseph if he wanted to read it a story. He nodded and pulled out a safety pamphlet. "Once upon a time there was a plane that wanted to crash into the water. And there was a man on the plane that wanted to get into the water. So the plane went into the water." There was just enough turbulence and strange whirring sounds coming from the plane that as we flew over Lake Michigan those words kept coming back to me over and over. But we made it fine.

-Oh, and speaking of turbulence . . . our flight from Detroit to Denver was insane! The seatbelt sign was on for all but the last hour of the flight. I dozed off enough to only be mildly aware of it, but I think it hit Kevin pretty hard. As for Joseph, it's hard to really mind stuff like that when a) you're on an airplane!!!! and b) you are busy watching Lightning McQueen. So he still loves to fly.

-One last story. The past few times I had gone home, I would chip away at Understanding the Book of Mormon by Grant Hardy. Since Duchesne is generally a little less eventful than Providence, I asked my mom to leave it at my grandma's house for us to pick up before heading to Duchesne. She left a lot of other books, but not that one since she couldn't find it. We still couldn't find it when we went to Providence, so I just read other stuff. Then, the day we got back to Ann Arbor, I decided to check the library catalog on a whim. And they had it! We had gone all the way to Utah to read a book when it was in Michigan the whole time. It was just like the Wizard of Oz, somehow.

. . . and that should be my last post about our Utah trip. Unless I remember other stories, which is doubtful at this point.

Utah Trip, Part 2

After saying good-bye to Kevin's family, we were off to Logan! On our way there, we had a few stops we had to make. After all, we were driving through the beautiful countryside where the cult classic Troll 2 was filmed. Why we've seen it, I'm still not sure. What we think of it, I'm still not sure. Can we recommend it? Not categorically. But nonetheless, we felt we owed it to the movie to stop by some of its sites. So we put the addresses into the GPS, and spent about 20 minutes total visiting its hallowed ground. First stop was the farmhouse where most of the action occurred.

And what it looked like in person:

It got torn down.

As we were driving through the appropriate scenery, I tried to reenact this scene with Joseph:

But it didn't quite work.

Man, though, that was a pretty drive. I guess most anywhere is going to look pretty when it gets a few inches of rain, but those canyons and mountains were just shimmering.

My camera doesn't really have "shimmer" setting, I guess. Especially not at 70 mph.

We stopped by Porterville to see the old chapel where much of the movie was set,

This isn't quite what it looked like when it was filmed 25 years ago

stopped by my aunt's house in Hooper, and then made it to my parents' house!

The next day, we turned around and headed south to spend the day in Provo with sisters and BYU faculty. Since we weren't sure if we'd see Jennie or not, we decided to decorate her door with heartfelt compliments (the "you smell better than the bus when the heater turns on" kind since that's the only kind I really know how to do).

Uzbekistani refugee -- Joseph style

Uzbekistani refugee -- Derek style

Attacking Jennie's door with compliments and goldfish snacks

We did end up seeing Jennie and got to eat dinner with her! As a funny side note, we always always always order water when we go to restaurants. So when Jennie just said first thing to the waiter that "We're all getting water," she was probably making a well-educated guess. But this was Brick Oven! There was root beer! So we didn't end up getting water. Except for her.

And then, we did lots of fun things that have no photographic evidence! But here are the things that do:

Like father-in-law, like son-in-law

From Kaylie's cute baby shower

6 weeks apart

At the Logan River

Large-scale Pooh sticks

It . . . wasn't really that warm a lot of the days we were there. I think some of those clouds deposited snow on the mountains.

Yep, there's some snow. From about February to May I don't think there was any snow up there on Little Baldy. Speaking of Little Baldy, I just read that Disney is making a remake of "Night on Bald Mountain" because they are desperate. I think some people should hurry and make "Night on Little Baldy" because it's bound to be better. And it's not that hard of a walk to the top.

After two wonderful weeks with family, it was time to return back to Michigan.

But the memories remain.

Utah Trip Part 1

I have a lot of catch-up to do! I have hardly said anything about our trip to Utah last month!

Here is how the trip can basically be summed up: We had a fun time, saw fun people, ate good food, and did good things.

Now for pictures!

(But first, this story) Our first real stop in Utah was to my grandparents' house in Orem. It had been an exceptionally early morning for us since our flight left at 6 am Eastern Time, which meant leaving for the airport 4 am Eastern Time, which meant being up 3:30 Eastern Time, which meant . . . ugh. 1:30 Mountain Time. So we were tired! And Joseph was a little bit sick on top of it all, so by the time we got to Utah he was overtired and hungry. Which makes pretty much anyone a little cranky, to the point that the only thing he was willing to eat at my grandparents' was ice cream. I was a bit worried about him playing with other kids given his state, but we really wanted to meet his second cousins who lives next door, so we decided to give it a shot.

Incidentally, I had been wanting to meet this their oldest son for a while. About three years ago, when I was three days overdue, Kevin and I went up to the Clyde Building to do some work. When I happened to check Facebook, I saw that my cousin's wife had had a baby that day, and pictures were up. As I scrolled through pictures of this adorable human being, I suddenly felt a strange bit of pain. It took me several hours to realize it, but I was actually going into labor. And, you can't help but feel a bit of fondness for someone who indirectly may have finally freed me from being pregnant.

And now we got to meet him! Luke and Joseph immediately warmed up to each other, and the entire time they played we were able to forget just how tired and grumpy we were.

Luke was excited to show him the funny rocks that were perfect for sitting.

The pinecone game.

After that, we headed to Duchesne and had a good time with family as they gradually trickled in and out of the house.

On Thursday, we made a quick visit to Huntington, Utah, where many of Kevin's friends have ended up. I also discovered that changes of elevation in Indian Canyon can make for some wicked Braxton Hicks. We had considered going to Arches that day but I think I would have been pretty miserable so we'll just go to Google Images sometime/play in the sandbox to capture the same feeling.

One thing we had been looking forward to was chasing the cows. I was eager to make a remake of the movie from last year,

so I had my camera ready and waiting while he and Daddy and Grandpa were out rounding up the cows.

But it was not to be this year. The cows didn't moo enough, they went on a steeper part which scared Joseph, and worst of all, the lightning and hail started before they could really herd the cows. I stood on the front porch waiting for them to return when I heard the sound of Joseph screaming in terror. After a few minutes being wrapped up in a towel and not being pelted by rain and hail, he calmed down, but his ranching experience was done. I made a movie of Kevin and his dad herding the cows for Joseph to watch later, but it wasn't the same. So, no movie this year.

One reason we decided to have the trip in May was to see Brant, Margaret, and Fiona before they left for Germany for a new exciting job. We got to witness a lot of cousin love . . .

There were a couple of hugs they toppled over for

. . . and it only got better when more cousins showed up!

Looking for the lizard that was hiding in the fire pit.

This one.

So, it turns out that there were still some trees that were blossoming by the time we got to Utah. And I loved them.

For Mother's Day, Joseph made me a macaroni necklace in nursery. And we took pictures with other people's cameras so there are no pictures from that day. But it was a good day.

He's a pretty safe driver, actually. Helps that the four-wheeler was never on.

Watching Song of the Sea

I think this was Toy Story 2 (?). It looks like a pretty serious part.

After a fun, relaxing week in Duchesne, we headed up to see my family, with more good food, good people, good fun, and good pictures.