Top Ten--October 2007

I know, I know. It's about stinking time, so without further ado . . .

10. Isaac’s complete routing of my form of discipline for offenses of the mouth. After a particularly bad name calling session, I told him to go wait at the table until I finished feeding Adam, after which he would have to get vinegar in his mouth. I came to the table 5 minutes later, where he sat cheerfully squirting vinegar in his mouth. “I like it, mom. It’s goooooooood!” (I guess we’ll be boarding the “hot sauce” train as our new discipline. It seems to be working so far . . . the kids run away screaming at the mere threat.)

9. Primary Program #2 down. We somehow managed to squeeze our 175 primary children who were there up on the stand and in the first few rows of the chapel. Nice and cozy, as always! The kids did wonderfully, of course.

8. The BYU fan slogan for this year “Fully invested” has been taken to heart by at least one member of our family. It’s not Zach, who claims he’s “$5 invested,” cause that’s what it cost him to buy the T-shirt. Isaac on the other hand, seems to be fully invested every time he sings the ABC song, or starts yelling out random letters. It goes like this, “ABCDEFGHIBYU COUGARS!” Or, “XYTMBYU COUGARS!.”

7. Lucy’s tender, compassionate nature taking on a life of its own: getting a pillow every day for me to sit on after I mentioned one evening how hard our chairs were, always being concerned and caring when someone gets hurt, and saving the “twisted” chips from her lunch for me because she knows how much I love them. I really, really do. What a sweet gesture.



6. “I’n huuuuuuuuuungry.” With three boys in our home now I expect that I’ll hear this phrase a whole lot in the coming years. And with a new baby to feed, my reply is often, “Well grab a snack!” Isaac took these words to heart and this is how I found him a few minutes later. (Yes, that's lettuce, folks.)
5. It’s amazing how much more baking goes on in our house when the moms are here. Mom B taught me a fabulous cinnamon roll recipe, which I made with mixed success. After all, forgetting the nuts and, ahem . . . cinnamon really cut down on the tastiness of cinnamon rolls. No WONDER I don’t bake when they aren’t around.

4. Kye’s new favorite pastime: Monopoly. He plays it every single day during rest time. He plays for himself, for Lucy and for me. He begs Zach to play every Sunday afternoon. He’s beaten Zach (legitimately) every single time.
3. Old friendships renewed. I had the privilege to see some very good friends from my growing up years this month—Erin Bennet came down during her law school fall break to catch up, and Dorothy Edwards came over when she and Jon were in Provo for some dental classes. I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t take any pictures while they were here. Anyway, thanks for coming, guys. It made my month.

2. Lucy: “Ugh! Mom, I don’t want anything HEALTHY to eat at my party!!” (After I tried to convince her that cut up carrots with a dab of cream cheese and a sliced olive looked like goblin eyes and would be in keeping with her Halloween-themed birthday party.)

1. Doting on little Adam. It’s so fun to see the kids get to know him and enjoy him. Isaac calls him “our Adam baby,” and “my fave-it, fave-it baby.” Lucy and Kye try to get him to smile. After one such attempt, in which they kissed his cheeks at the same time, and Adam graced us with a huge grin, I laughed a big, huge belly laugh. Lucy looked amazed, “I’ve never heard you laugh before, mom!” Though I know she’s heard me laugh (maybe not that loud), it was a sad, sad commentary on my lack of joy. Yes, Lucy, I’ll try to remember to laugh more. Life is to be lived, enjoyed, laughed about, and filled with gratitude for our blessings. Thank goodness I have children to remind me!