Landon

a happy Landon at Lagoon with April

A few things about Landon this week:

1. Landon just started playing on a basketball team for the first time. He was pretty nervous about being a beginner with a team of boys who have played a lot, but he has done super. I took him to practice this week and brought along my computer to work on a project. I would have loved to watch him practice and play, but I thought I might hear afterwards an embarressed "You were the only Mom there!" so I just did my own thing. Afterwards, Landon asked if I saw some of his best moves and he was dissapointed that I hadn't watched -- hooray for a not-so-little boy who still wants to say "Look Mom!" (These are some of the most heard words from Porter and Owen this week :)

2. We let Landon stay home from school one day this week, just for a day off. It happened to be a day I was watching two of Porter's friends for a little bit. And this Landon just had the best time running around and leading those kiddos on great fun adventures all over our house!

3. Driving home from basketball practice, Landon was looking for some music on the radio. I sang along as he turned to a cheesy 80's love song, and when he changed it, I teased him by singing louder and adding in the arms (safely, while driving of course)  (We did it all for the glory of love!)   And then he changed it back. (!) And I turned it up and he listened while I sang along to the rest of the song. What a kiddo!

Three-year-old Porter

I watched from my bed as Porter barricaded my bedroom door with packages of quilts and blankets. Then he climbed up to the top, got all settled in, and said to me with a smile,  "Don't worry Mom, just relax."

Reading Lately (Fall edition)

It has been long enough since I've read any of these that they're all a bit hazy in my memory already. But here are a few fun recent reads:

Pride and Prejudice - This one is the star of the show on this list. I've always thought that I didn't like Pride and Prejudice. Friends in high school and roommates in college would go crazy over the BBC version and I'd think 'I have better things to do than watch a six hour movie...' or something like that. Then I watched the new-ish version on netflix at some point and liked it pretty well. Then when Isaac was born, I was looking for a free audio book to listen to while I nursed and I thought I'd give this a try, and I just loved it! I finished the audio version, then went back and re-read my favorite parts. Then watched all six hours of the BBC version, and the newer version again too. This may well have been similar to how all food tastes delicious in the first few weeks with a newborn, but I enjoyed it so much :)

Real Moms - I just pictured the author sitting with me and chatting and telling me all these funny stories about being a mom, and loved it. Lisa & Topher Clark are two of my very favorites to follow on instagram too.

Justin Case: School, drool & other daily disasters - It's been long enough, that I honestly can't remember this, but I know I loved it because I just love this kid!

It ain't so awful, Falafel - I was so excited to find this at the library, because I've loved her books of essays (they're hilarious.) This was okay. It was fun and interesting, but not spectacular like her others.

Clementine - Again, it's been a long time, and I can't remember much about this.  There was something about coloring her hair (or her friend's hair?) green and drawing in some curls with sharpie... silly and Ellie will probably like it.

Lizzy Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Gary Schmidt wrote two of my very favorite books (Wednesday Wars & Okay for Now). But this one I didn't love. It seemed more like a 'making a statement' kind of book and it was interesting, but not a favorite.

I Feel Bad about my Neck - One evening I escaped to the library and enjoyed the quiet, just reading in one of their big chairs. I think this was pretty funny, but the evening of quiet was even more memorable :)

Out of the Dust - I thought I'd try to read through some of the books on our bookshelves that I haven't read in ages so I could decide whether to keep or toss them. I started with this one and even a few months later, I still haven't made up my mind about whether I liked it or not. It definitely gives a good picture of what life might have been like in the dust-bowl times, and I did like that.




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Owen

You know this isn't a current photo because if it came from this week there would be another few feet of snow :) But look at that cute Owen!

Owen was a little bit sick today, and a lot slow-moving this morning trying to get back into the routine of things (after Christmas break and then only one day to school last week!) So I kept him home and we had a fun morning with Porter and Isaac. We did some school time (Every time I talk about doing school time, the first request is the dice game. So we played that with Porter and practiced Portuguese numbers too :) and did some reading practice and writing practice and read books and played with Isaac... It was a happy time.

This evening, for a little project I'm doing I was making a quick video of Owen and asking him to tell me something great that he loved about each person in our family. He was kind of stumped when he got to me. First he said "so many things!" but when I asked for something specific, he had to really think --

Then he said "Oh! One time you played Monopoly with me. You were kind of busy with lots of things to do but you just took a break and played it with me."

Which is so sweet that he'd remember such a little thing but also kind of breaks my worried-about-not-doing-enough mom heart.  I can hardly even remember that Monopoly game because it was months ago.

I hope I can just remember the sweetness of this and know that Owen feels loved when he knows I'm stopping whatever busy-ness is going on to do something just with him. And try to make that happen a little bit more.  I sure love this kid!

Snow days!

I can remember a crazy day in southern California when we had snow -- my cousins and I all went outside and watched the little flutters and hoped for an inch because that was what we'd need for school to close (or so we thought). 

After a few major snowstorms this week, we woke up on Thursday morning to about 3 feet of snow, with temperatures forecast at about -8 degrees, and our first Logan snow day! 

The kids had a great time playing with friends and with each other and having just a great day. (Except poor little Isaac who has been sick and didn't have such a happy day!)

Then, an even bigger surprise -- we had another snow day today! There was no new snow, but the current temperature in Logan around 6 or 7 this morning was -24 degrees (-24!) 

We made cinnamon rolls and funny pictures (like cute Isaac above) and Jordan and the kids are playing games, and we'll see what this icy cold afternoon brings :)

snowed in

With some amazingly quick shoveling from Landon and Jordan this morning we made it out of the driveway to get the kids to school. A precarious block to the main (plowed) road and then a slow moving drive to and from (plus carrying boot-less Owen across the space from the car to the sidewalk) and all three children made it safe and sound to school. I postponed grocery shopping for a Lee's delivery tomorrow (which sadly means a day of oatmeal or cream of wheat, since those are the soft foods we have and I just had an orthodontist appointment yesterday!) Still, it felt worth it to keep warm and safe and home. 

Jordan, on the other hand, watched the snow fall and fall and fall from his outside office and decided the day was too perfectly snowy to stay home. No amount of mom-fears could dissuade him, so he ended work early, picked up the kids from school early and off they went to try out snowboarding. (I'm not going to think about the less than ideal odds of 1 Dad + 4 small kiddos first time snowboarding. I'm not going to think about all the things that might go wrong/be going wrong with that situation. I'm not going to think about it.)

So me and Isaac are here at home, packing away Christmas, walking laps around the loop when Isaac gets a bit sad, feeding/napping/playing/rolling, listening to music, trying out all the baby toys, watching this snow fall and fall and fall, and daydreaming about delicious soft foods like cauliflower soup and milkshakes.

(And not thinking about snowboarding disasters.)