I die.

Hilarious.

Not too long ago, Shane and I caught Kina Grannis in Denver.  She was fantastic, talented, gracious and we were totally smitten.

Micah turns 3

Micah turned 3 on Friday.  We fed him all of his favorite foods. Coconut pancakes for breakfast. Hot dogs, potato chips, fruit leather and strawberries for lunch (cousins and Grandma joined us--hip hip!). Gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin doughnuts (that Micah helped make) followed lunch. Out to dinner at Zolo's where he enjoyed fresh tortilla chips, spicy chicken wings, and bacon wrapped dates.  After dinner we played around at Grandrabbit's, a cool little toy store in town. The gifts: a scooter, a wading pool (thanks Grandma Mia!) and lots of water toys (thanks Grandma Shelly!)

More about the Micah Man:

I recently read, The Five Love Languages."  I decided that Micah's primary love language is physical touch.  He is constantly hugging and kissing all of us.  He loves to be cuddled and will take every and any opportunity to sit in a lap.  If my legs are stretched out on the floor, he parks himself on them.When he's sad or hurt or for no reason at all he'll ask, "Mommy can you hold me?"

Shane says he'll make a great salesman...he never takes no for an answer.  If I refuse him something he goes straight to Sage or Shane to ask.

He is semi-obsessed with mechanical things.  In a store or a home the first thing he notices are security cameras, smoke detectors and other sorts of contraptions.  Nothing makes him happier than to be fixing something with daddy: screwing things in, climbing on ladders etc.

His most requested night time story is the story of he and Shane taking a trip to Home Depot and hearing an alarm go off.  Pretty boring story, but he loves it and never tires of hearing it.

He almost always wakes up from his nap crying.  Hope that changes someday!!!

He is potty trained but has an occasional accident, especially of late.  We were wandering around the back yard the other evening looking for his binky and I discovered a few surprises he had left.  I told Shane we need to buy a pooper scooper.  He leaves poopy streaks on the toilet seat and loves to watch himself pee.

He still loves to sing.  I sing a hymn to him every night (we change it monthly) and recently it was "You Can Make the Pathway Bright."  I wasn't sure how well he knew until one night, as I sang the second stanza, he pulled his binky out and proceeded to finish the song off with me.  My heart was just about bursting with joy.  It's pretty darling to hear your toddler sing lines like, "If there's sunshine in your heart, you can send a shining ray that will turn the night to day..."

He still eats a lot of meat, "mullet" (millet), lots of pears, fruits, veggies.  His favorites are freeze dried mangoes, gluten free bread, cheese (he only gets this when he steals it) and bananas (his one baby word left..."dee-yaya").

He LOVES girly things: necklaces, purses, dresses, hair clips.  The life of a boy surrounded by women.

Quotes of late:

A few months ago he pulled the cover off of Pres. Monson's biography, "Das President Monson, he's out paw-fet!" That was one of those happy mom moments when you realize that what you're teaching is sticking.

Said all in one breath: "I love you mommy 'n i love mangoes."

He doesn't just want to build a castle out of blocks, his request is, "I wanna build a castle foundation."

His question of late when he doesn't understand something, "What you mean_________?"

He's a pretty polite kid (maybe cause his mom nags him constantly about it!) so all through the day I hear: "May i please_______?"

"Where does Heavenly Father live?"

"We need to go to the rain store and get some rain."

Alicia (sternly): "DON'T kick Haven."
Micah: "May I please kick myself?"

"Can I see Havens cute-iful dress?"

"Can Heavenwee Father sing me a song?"

He went through his politician stage when he denied all wrong doing, as in:

"I didn't go peepee." 
"I didn't put my binky in dere." (dropped binky in toilet full of poo).
 "I didn't spill dat."

We had the house painted recently and he told the painter a few times: "Dat looks beautiful."

Shane and I were going to bed on Micah's birthday and we both agreed that a prayer of thanks for Micah's good health was in order.  He's come such a long way.

That photo above was taken just 15 months ago.  We are so grateful to Heavenly Father for restoring Micah's health.

We sure love our boy.  My mom once told me that a son has a special place in your heart.  Oh what true words.  Maybe it's because Micah is a mini-Shane, maybe it's because he's just so darn cute but either way I'm always mugging on him and I delight in his smiles and mischevious ways.

Shane took the kids for a walk tonight and let Micah ride his bike (anything to get his energy out on Sunday!).  I was at the kitchen sink as they pulled in and so I had a perfect view of Micah.  He was dressed in his white undies (and nothin' else), Keens, riding his little Strider bike and....there was a purple plumeria flower tucked behind one ear.  He'd picked it up on his ride.  Classic Micah.

Listen Up

Lennon & Maisy Stella have some serious talent.  I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've listened to this song.

Listen Up

Gorgeous harmonies and creative percussion from Erato.

Miss Haven is 1

Please note the size of Sage's blueberry muffin pancake.  And yes, that woman in the background is having salad for breakfast. Only in Boulder.

This is what happens when we try for a family photo.  And yes those are rolls around my tummy...I'm working on it. 

Haven's one and only present from us...Sophie the Giraffe

We celebrated Haven's birthday at Snooze, a cute little diner in downtown Boulder.  Breakfast is more like dessert over at Snooze.  Makes me think of the Jim Gaffigan routine about pancakes: "Young man you're not having cake for breakfast, you're having fried cake with syrup."

I tell people that Haven is the best surprise I never planned.  A little about her for posterity's sake. She smiles and babbles all day long these days.  Her baby signs are just darling.  We love the sparkle in her eyes and those long, long lashes. She has what we call a "spicy" personality (spicy as in feisty).  She is always good for a snuggle, especially with Shane.  When she nurses she loves to pick on my shoulder mole (gross) and touch my cheek with her little hand (sweet).  She never stops squirming during her waking hours.  She gets very excited about dogs and Shane's homecoming.  We love her little laugh (it sounds a lot like Sage and Micah's laugh).  She loves being outside in the yard (always has) playing quietly on a blanket, observing the scenery.  Haven enjoys seaweed and beef liver among other things.  She is quite the carnivore and devours meatloaf and meatballs and lamb.

Haven birth was a bright spot in the dark days of Micah's illness.  We chose her name long before she arrived, before we knew how fitting it would prove.  In the first few weeks of her life the time she and I spent nursing and snuggling and sleeping together felt like a haven, a refuge in a tumultuous time.  I felt whole again after she was born, as if Heavenly Father restored to us the joy and peace that were missing.  Her birth is a reminder that, "...there is nothing lost, but may be found..." 

school daze

My sister Kassie has a knack for collecting unique words and phrases.  Her latest cool word is "redonkulous."  Think "ridiculous" plus "dumb."  I fell hard for the word and now use it a lot.  So much, in fact, that for a while Micah was running around saying, "Thas redonk-you-luss." 

Anywho, the emails we receive from Sage's school are the epitome of redonkulous.  I just had to share the latest email from her principal as well as Shane's response (A note: Shane mentions us being Conservative but in reality we fall more in line with the Independent crowd-but in reality we would like to wash our hands of all politicians and politics).

This bit of redonkulous-ness is for you Kass (extra special drivel is highlighted).

Greetings BCSIS and High Peaks Parents,

A collaborative group of parents from both of our wonderful schools has come together to discuss ways we can support a positive recess experience on the playground for all of our children. We have met as a group and have so far come up with goals, parent roles and a fabulous training opportunity for what we’re calling the Positive Playground Initiative. We welcome your input and participation to make this a success! 

Goals for the Positive Playground Initiative

   •  Increased parent presence on the playground – having plenty of adults on the ground during recess creates a more positive and supportive environment for our children.

    • Providing optional cooperative games and shared playground equipment between schools, e.g. an organized station of balls, hoops, etc. with laminated ‘game cards’ that describe playground games;

   • Bridging kids between both schools through positive experiences – i.e. finding ways for kids from both schools to connect and play together. We believe this will translate into increased positive play during recess.

    • Cultivate and sustain a positive playground culture, i.e. supporting important play principles such as respect, sharing, inclusion, conflict resolution, and sportsmanship.

Roles for the Parents- help out on the playground during recess!

The role of the parent volunteers would be to help support games and sport activities on the playground, support students who need help connecting with other children, and generally being a positive presence on the playground. Parents would not be expected to discipline children, nor to mediate in heated conflicts. Having more adult volunteers present on the playground would support the school personnel in dealing with discipline issues and conflict between children.

The games and sports activities we are proposing on the playground are optional for children.  We realize that some children are perfectly content with unstructured time. However, there are many students at recess who would benefit from the presence of even more caring, friendly adults to help them problem-solve and make connections.

Training and Volunteering

The Positive Playground Initiative launches with a training of core parents and staff. As a volunteer you will receive a 3 hour training from PlayWorks - a national organization whose mission is to promote positive play experiences on school playgrounds. The date for this Playground Workshop is Friday April 6, 2012 from 8:30-11:30 in the Gym. To participate in the training we ask for a commitment of one recess slot per week (30-40 minutes) as a parent volunteer for the remainder of the school year.  We hope that this core of parents will be interested in continuing their playground volunteerism next year as well. As the Positive Playground Initiative expands, we will bring on additional parent volunteers who will be trained in-house and recruited for playground volunteering this year and next.

Please contact Kael to sign up for the Playground Workshop as soon as possible. Space is limited.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing some of you at the training and on the playground. We believe this will be a rewarding experience for you and the children.

And Shane's response:

Phil,  

It's been a while since I've commented on your emails, which have been noticeably less frequent.
  
With all do respect Phil, this is the most ridiculous idea I've heard in a long time.  It may not be you personally, but someone is trying way to hard and it's going to back fire.  Kids know way more than adults.  They forgive and forget, they have way more fun, are more real, communicate way better than adults and are more sincere, generous and loving.  Can't you see that being around so many kids? 
 
Here's what you need to do.  Get all of the adults off of the play ground and just let them be kids.  Aren't you and many of the school leadership liberal in your belief systems?  It's so ironic to me, as a conservative, that liberals like to have more rules, more suggestions and more oversight then us conservatives.  We don't need more rules, especially the kids.

In a previous email, describing other playground rules, my wife and I literally laughed out loud as it described how kids can't play chase games unless all the kids agreed.  And that kids couldn't be mean to each other.  It's a joke.  Just let them play and be kids.

The adults should observe the kids to see how to behave.  What do adults know about proper communication?  Have you watched the news lately?  Do you honestly think that adults are good role models for kids?  It's the opposite my friend.

Phil, you guys try way too hard.  Too hard to make sure everything is fair, to make sure that no one ever has their feelings hurt, that there is a rule for every single thing.  It's a joke, really Phil and I'm sure that there is a better way to spend your time as the principle.  Have you checked the stats of our American school children do academically compared to other industrialized countries on our planet?  We're no where near the top.  But we definitely have plenty of play ground rules and plenty of other rules to make sure that no one is better than anyone else, that we're all the same, no one can excel because that would mean someone is failing, and that just wouldn't be very nice, that child might even cry.

And I already know your response.  You're going to be fair, thank me for expressing my opinion, that I'm an honored parent and you just want to do the right things.  I know you work hard and deal with a lot, but someone needs to stand up for standards, for right and wrong, and put a stop to the silliness that is represented in these ridiculous ideas that somehow, we need parents hovering over these kids during recess. 

These kids are not being properly prepared for the real world.  Ya, sometimes the real world isn't so nice, and it's not fair to try and create this artificial, perfect utopia while kids are in school, only to have them fail when they get out, or worse, become an entitled adult who can't be tough, handle failure, get up again and keep on trying until they succeed. The real world doesn't have recess monitors holding everyone's hand. 

It's silly Phil.

Enjoy the rest of your day. 

I'll be spending 9+ hours working my tail off to provide for my family.  I'll be fighting, overcoming weaknesses, working through fatigue, and doing everything possible to provide well for my family in an environment where if I don't try very hard, and keep on getting up after failures and disappointments, and never ever give up, I'll lose my business and have nothing for my family.  Fortunately, I didn't have people holding my hand while I grew up, and I learned to fail, and keep on going.  

Boulder news

First up, seaweed snacks are all the rage here in the elementary schools.  Sage begged me to buy them.  Crunchy and teriyaki flavored.  Mmmmmm....seaweedy goodness. Micah, Sage and I all love them.  Only in Boulder would children pack seaweed snacks in their lunch.

And we're getting a Trader Joe's next year!  Hip Hip!  We already have 3 Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage, Sprouts, Sunflower Market, Lucky's and Alfalfa's so with TJ's we'll have a grand total of 9 health food stores.  Just another reason Boulder is the perfect town for our little family.

movin' and groovin'

And in other news she's started signing "milk"

Micah Says

When I ask him to smile this is the face he makes

Micah loves to stand in front of the fridge, tug on the door and the following conversation ensues (keep in mind that this child wants to eat all the live long day):
M: Mama, can I have nothing? 
A: You want nothing?
M: Yeah.

Anytime I put his winter coat on he makes the request, "Can you my neighbor-hood on?"

Micah is still learning to be a good cleaner-upper.  He doesn't particularly enjoy cleaning and usually he tries to create more messes while I work.

Recently I was singing the Clean Up song when he chimed in for the last stanza, "Clean up, clean up everybody do my share." Some people might call it a cute mistake, I say Micah was going for accuracy.

Parting words at bedtime tonight (according to Shane): "I wish I could have more broccoli."

listen up

Love the bike, love the dress and love this song from Meghan Smith.

Listen Up

Smooth.  Oh so smooth.

What's Happening: Haven Edition

This picture is courtesy of one of the kiddos...not sure which one as they both love snapping away.  I like it because you can see the Joker-like (as in Batman) curl of Havie's lip. 

All of our children are late bloomers.  Sage walked at 13 months, Micah at 19.5 months.  Sage just lost her first tooth at 6 and 3/4.  And according to this pattern Miss Haven just began sitting at 8 months and she doesn't yet have a single tooth.  By the way Haven is a teeny little thing.  She's as light as a feather and I haven't had to buy many new clothes as she hasn't grown much.  Sometimes I do worry but then I remember that she has an appetite like a velocraptor, she has more than her fair share of dirty diapers, she is happy, sleeps well, her eyes are bright and shiny, never been sick etc.  It's helpful that she's never been to the doctor so I don't have to worry about the weigh-in and measuring and stress about percentiles (which truth be told, I think are silly).  I guess I'm learning to just trust that every baby is different and will develop at different rates and there's no need to stress because there's nothing I can do about it.







Sage so nicely offered to hold Haven for her first haircut.  Actually second.  A month prior to this picture I got tired of seeing her hair in her eyes and I took a pair of fabric scissors and hacked away.  Haven looked like Lloyd from "Dumb and Dumber" when I was through.

A chilly walk on Christmas Day.  Haven LOVES to be facing outward in the Moby.  She used to cry and fuss when I had her facing.  It took me a long while to determine that this kid loves action.  She really enjoyed NYC because there was so much to look at.  She's happiest when the kids are running around the house, making lots of noise.  She's a hustle and bustle kind of girl.

What's Happening: Micah Edition

When Micah first got sick, in January 2010, he would scratch constantly during naps and at night, resulting in lots of blood and a sad, sad boy.  My ever-resourceful dad and brother created a special bed for him.  He slept in that little bed for 20 months, his hands tied down with zip ties.

Micah has been doing so well (minimal scratching and sleeping well) we let him go zip tie free over the TG break. He didn't know what to do with himself at first.  Many nights we would peek in and see him lying flat on his back with his arms semi-spread eagle---his old sleeping arrangement.  After a few weeks he settled in to sleeping on his tummy, curled up with his loveys.

And at long last Mr. Micah sleeps through the night... most nights.

Santa brought Micah some wheels...a Strider.  He's not sure about it yet.

Sage shared her chocolate reindeer with him on Christmas morning.  Chocolate is a no-no food but anything goes on Christmas, right?.  Micah was thrilled to say the least.  "I really, really like it."

First time sledding.  He has a love-hate relationship with the hill...mostly hate.

First snowman. "I want to svoove it down." (translation: I want to smooth it down)

He loves "Russel Sprouts" as he calls them. Micah's never met a vegetable, or any food for that matter, that he doesn't like.

He loved lentil soup but the lentil soup didn't love him as evidenced by the puffy, red lips.  Poor kiddo.

First official haircut.  Ashleigh comes to our house for cuts...woot woot!

 Micah always sleeps with "Dressy Bessy" and "Mr. Monkey."  Dressy Bessy was Sage's; she's a special doll that helps you learn to button, tie and zip.  For some reason Micah decided he loves her. 

Micah loves to get bundled up and go outside to play.  And then within 5 minutes he's ready to come back inside.

















                                                                                         

He loves "geen svoovies" (green smoothies)

What's Happening: Sage Edition

Before her first Boulder Children's Chorale Concert.

 She's in a cute little choir that practices at a church literally 3 blocks from us.  She loves it.  Her director is a bear (i.e. I emailed her to tell her that Sage would have to miss a concert and in response she demanded to know why and we proceeded to email back and forth---her emails?  Not so nice)

Sage's new wheels & poncho from Grandma Mia

Sage couldn't wait to get out on her new scooter.  Here she is on Christmas Day (our fake Christmas day---explanation in future).  Nothing deterrred her, not snow or muddy puddles or the cold.  Actually she pooped out after a block but no need to dwell on that.

Finsihed!!

We began reading the BOM to Sage when she was two.  We got through one verse (two if we were lucky) a night for the first two years, then we upped it to a column a night, next a page a night.  Then in November, Sage set a goal to finish by the end of the year which bumped her up to two pages a night.  She was mighty proud when she finished (her parents too!).  She's continuing to read two pages a night so she can finish it again before her baptism in February 2013.

This mama doesn't buy school photos.  Call me Ebeneezer Scrooge but I didn't want to pay $30 for no mucho pictures.  So instead I just got my handy dandy Grab tool off the Mac and cut the picture out of the online viewing gallery.  I might seem like a criminal but on my honor I will never, ever print this photo.  I just wanted a copy for posterity's sake.

Sage lost her first two teeth!  She's pretty excited.  It's fun seeing her grow-up.  She lost both teeth at school.  The school nurse puts your tooth in a little tooth necklace and send you home with it.  Sage wore that necklace like a badge of honor

Listen Up

Geeky white boy + old school soul sound= Mayer Hawthorne

I like.

back in the saddle

We headed up to Eldora today, our first time on the slopes this season.  Shane was SO nice and stayed with Micah and Haven at the car while Sage and I skied for a nice long spell.  Sage is pretty pro, her mama on the other hand, not so much.  I was proud of myself just for making it down every run without falling.  But I do believe that this old dog can learn new tricks so I'll keep on going back, with my daughter in tow to coach me down the mountain.

invisible 'do

I counted. I saw 9 people I know yesterday and not one of them noticed the new 'do.  That might be a record.

Finally while Shane and I cleaned up dinner dishes I asked him if he liked my new haircut.  This is what followed:

A: Notice anything different?
S: (stares silently)
A: My hair!  I got bangs!
S: I knew there was something different.