Another trip around the sun is done! Whew! We made it another year!
This has been an intense year -- the last few months of pregnancy were painful, the postpartum experience has made me feel old for the first time, the transition to three kids was (and still is) wild, the twos have been more terrible than terrific this time, the job search was harrowing, and it's just been exhausting. The best part about all of this is that I've made some really strong friendships because we've been in the trenches together in a way I've never quite been before. I will be so sad to leave my friends in New Haven behind, but I think it will be healthier for our family to be in an area where we can get more support from family and neighbors.
Anyway, here's a list of brand new things I did this year:
1. Watched Let's Go Fly a Kite on YouTube. I also sang it about 250 times, and Matthew sang it about 1000.
2. Became a soccer mom.
3. Went to the Priesthood Restoration Site
I've been meaning to blog about this for almost a year . . . but I haven't.
It was really nice. You should go!
4. Played the Yale carillon
5. Went to the ER (Actually, it's kind of amazing that I made it this long in life without ever going for me or for my kids. It wasn't super fun or super helpful, and actually I think I just figured out what the problem was this last week, 10 months after the whole ordeal.)
6. Attended a show on Broadway, and then a concert at Carnegie Hall.
Hi Jacob!
7. Dressed up for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil-A
8. Gave birth to a blond baby!
9. Became a mom to three boys.
10. Became a two-car family.
11. Got mastitis for the first time while I was at my sister's wedding.
12. Experienced the madness of school pickup
13. Celebrated my 10,000th day!
14. Hiked carrying a baby (We basically stopped hiking as soon as we had kids, but we started up again this summer!)
15. Took care of three kids by myself when Kevin had conferences and interviews. (First job interviews ever!)
16. Took a paying babysitting job (very part time, and very fun).
17. Visited family in Maryland. It was such a great Thanksgiving!
18. Purchased a new side view mirror. (We should have stopped parking our car on that road after that, but unfortunately it took someone backing into the car for us to find a new place to park it.)
19. Served as a stake choir accompanist.
20. Played the chimes on the organ for Christmas.
21. Served as ward choir director. (Kevin and I did it together at BYU, but this was the first time I actually conducted instead of accompanied.) It's been fun!
22. Celebrated e day
23. Celebrated the 100th day of kindergarten. (And all the other things they make up, like Dr. Seuss day.)
24. Had my first public school snow day experiences. (I never had one growing up! Joseph had so many, and some of them were totally unnecessary.)
Nor'easter Toby could have put forth a little more effort.
25. Experienced the thrill and stress of a job offer and all the big decisions that come with that. We are so excited for all the new adventures coming the next few months.
26. Went sledding in April. Once I did finally managed to take the kids sledding, it finally stopped snowing! God was so nice to give us so many chances for so many weeks. (Sorry everyone who wanted nice weather during March and April . . . it was my fault we didn't get it.)
27. Performed a serious recital entirely comprised of my own arrangements and my own improvisations. The day before my birthday last year I made some career goals for myself, and I started to see things come together this year in encouraging ways.
I am grateful for the friends and family who've helped me out through the various challenges this year, especially as I've learned to parent three kids. I think 28 will be a great year!
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee?
or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?
or naked, and clothed thee?
or tried, at least . . . all of these shirts were as scratchy as sackcloth, apparently
Or when saw we thee sick,
so many weeeeeeeeeeks of coldsssss
or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
The other day, I was thinking, "Matthew sure reminds me of Joseph when he was this age." So I started scouting out old photos, quotes, and videos, and sure enough, there are a lot of similarities. (It actually gave me a moment of panic as I realized that 3 might be a hard age for Matthew for the same reasons it was hard for Joseph, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.)
Then I was curious if Jacob was like Matthew at 8 months, because I honestly have no memory of Matthew being 8 months despite it being just two years ago. I don't know if my brain has room for memories of two babies at once. So I scouted out photos and videos from back then, too.
And sure enough, just as superhero shirts and striped onesies get passed from one brother to the next, a lot of milestones and behaviors show up around the same age. It seems like once one little boy grows out of something, another one is ready to start it up again.
For example . . .
Shuddering
It started with Joseph . . .
Then Matthew . . .
And then we found a food that made Jacob shudder, too!
Knocking things down
Joseph had to learn a lot of patience when Matthew started knocking his creations down all the time.
And now that Jacob is crawling, Matthew's comeuppance has finally come.
(This video doesn't show him knocking anything over. But it happens. It's going to be a long couple of months.)
Clapping
Best milestone ever.
Big sparkly eyes
I guess no one is really passing the baton here because they all still have big, sparkly brown eyes. But it is fun to see more Moon babies joining the brown-eyes ranks.
Hi Leslie
So far, no one has inherited Joseph's Coraline eyes.
Thank goodness
Asparagus
Matthew has passed his limp, green asparagus baton onto Jacob. As in, he won't eat it anymore. But at least we have one child who likes it!
Sounds
We sure love baby sounds, whether it's jabbering, babbling, or squeaking. (Jacob has definitely preferred the high pitched squeaking lately.)
Tackling older brothers
Babies love having other humans around, especially small ones. They are like super fun toys that make noise and shriek when you grab them.
Matthew is a bit scared of Jacob, actually. He starts squealing and running away when Jacob is crawling. Jacob has put up with a lot from Matthew his entire life, so it's sort of funny to see Matthew scared of him now.
Teething
Matthew finally finished getting all his molars!!! (What. an. ordeal. and now if he's grumpy, it's not because his mouth hurts.) But, luckily for us, Jacob has been teething now on and off for several months with only the slightest hints of teeth that I can only feel when he latches on especially hard.
And, if that weren't enough, sometimes I look in Joseph's mouth and see swollen gums where his 6-year-old molars are coming in. He doesn't drool or bite or throw fits about it, thankfully, but it's still not fun.
Handing the teething baton to two brothers. Well played, Matthew.
Imaginative Play
When Joseph was two, he would let me know what stood out in my parenting based on how he played with his toys. "The bear is feeling sad. The meerkat needs a time out." Stuff like that.
Matthew has also been good at mirroring what happens in life in his play. His toys watch general conference and go to the stake center. They talk about taking turns and not hitting. Most days he is really good at entertaining himself . . . but sometimes I'm too entertained to use the time productively!
Those blocks are a "princess," he's been telling me
Storytelling
Joseph definitely knew the story of Noah's Ark.
And Matthew definitely knows something resembling the story of Jonah.
ABC's
We heard the ABC Song a lot for a long time.
And thanks to Matthew, we still do! (He's not singing so much in this video, but I promise he does it a lot. Sometimes he throws in words like T-Rex or Superman to change things up a bit.)
Dancing
Joseph passed the baton along, but he's also kept his own baton twirling. Give us a week, and Jacob will get his own baton, too.
Superhero Clothes
Once upon a time, I bought Joseph a Superman shirt.
Over the next 700 days, he wore it probably about 250 times. It got a little bit holey, a little bit short, a little bit worn. We decided he couldn't wear it to kindergarten, especially because he had finally grown into a bigger Superman shirt. So his old Superman shirt went straight into Matthew's drawer . . .
and it was the only shirt he would wear willingly. He learned how to put shirts on just so he could wear it. Kevin and I couldn't handle the idea of dealing with this shirt, so we hid it.
And then, we reminded him of other shirts with superhero names even if they didn't have the logos on them. Captain America shirt. Iron Man shirt. Hulk shirt. Gradually, he expanded his wardrobe.
Another unexpected source of variety came from Paw Patrol characters. We've been used to colors being assigned to various superheroes, but Matthew used Paw Patrol characters to assign colors for all sorts of things. For example, I made a marinade with some oil, chili powder, and cumin, among other things. Matthew looked at it and told me, "That's a Zuma cake." Why? Because it was orange. It works for clothes sometimes, too!
He still thanks Heavenly Father for his Superman shirt in most prayers, but at least he doesn't have to wear it.
Meanwhile, Joseph's done a pretty good job of passing the baton along. He still likes to wear his superhero shirts with designated pants, but if there's a reason to wear something else then he's fine with it. Hooray!
Mispronunciations
Without having ever watched this video of Joseph,
Matthew has still figured out how to say "Swanich" (not quite swanwich like Joseph) with the exact same inflection.
(Oh, and speaking of kids learning from each other, if you ever make the mistake of taking the crusts off your child's bread, you've just doomed yourself to a life sentence for not only that child, but for all of their siblings too once they figure it out. Sigh.)
And how did he pick up Joseph's pronunciation of "regular"? I think I actually twitched when he said "regury" because I heard it so much for so long. I think he's figuring out the regular way to say it, thankfully.
Buzz Lightyear
Joseph went through a pretty intense Buzz Lightyear phase right after Matthew was born.
So far, Matthew hasn't picked up the Buzz Lightyear baton quite as thoroughly as Joseph did. But nonetheless, we've had a few funny quotes.
Me: "Bye Joseph, I love you!" Matthew: "Bye Joseph, I love your Buzz Lightyear!"
and
Me: "I sure love you, Matthew." Matthew: "Uh-huh. I sure love Buzz Lightyear."
And, come to think of it, he has liked our Toy Story shirts more than Joseph did. We'll keep you posted with what will happen on the Buzz Lightyear front.
Chess
Of course, Kevin and I pass the baton along where we can here and there.
Kevin is teaching his children to think critically and strategically, so he is teaching Joseph chess.
I have not had such lofty aims, so I decided to pass the baton along of Barney. In my defense, it was on Amazon Prime, it's not scary, and they love it.
And hey, it's fun to have them singing classic kids songs, even if their intent is negated by a certain toddler. For example:
-"I don't like to eat, eat, eat healthy food at dinner. I like to eat, eat, eat cookies and no crusts."
-"Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please go away."
-"I'm not growing, I don't do it every day."
-"Oh we don't take turns. We don't take turns. When we play with friends"
-"I love T-Rex, you love T-Rex, we're a happy family."
. . . Maybe this wasn't the best baton to pass on after all.
And speaking of intergenerational baton passing, let me tell you a story!
Once upon a time there was a young woman who married a young man majoring in electrical engineering at BYU. They were married right after winter semester shortly before the young woman turned 20. Two years later she had her first child, and then her husband went to grad school. Following his postgraduate work, he got a job.
At Utah State.
Cool paper from 1998, right? It didn't mention that those children would watch Barney and play chess, but they would.
Way to pass the baton along, Mom.
And way to go, Kevin! He's going to be an assistant professor at Utah State in the math and stats department!
We're so excited to be going back to Cache Valley! It just might be the best baton I pass along to my kids.
Note: This is my last Holy Week post. Happy Easter!
7. "Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." - Luke 24:39
I first heard this poem last week in a talk during Sacrament Meeting, and it struck me as forceful reminder that we believe in Easter literally. We believe in real bodies and real natural laws that we don't understand. We believe in the resurrection.
Seven Stanzas at Easter
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
