family time survival

Have you ever noticed that blogs sometimes don’t seem like real life? It’s just a snapshot of this or of that and it seems as though we have put our life through photoshop to give it just the right look. The truth is, most of the time Marie and I feel like life is just hard. Not in a negative sort of way but in a way that makes us enjoy life but really hope that we can survive it. Well, this weekend gave us a little extra hope that we might make it!

I’m always trying to think of fun things Marie and I can do with the kids and in my mind they are these wonderful bonding experiences that will create lasting wonderful memories. The reality is that it never works out this way. “Let’s read the Christmas story and then decorate the Christmas tree together. It will be great.” In the end however, we are desperately trying to talk the kids into watching a movie or something so one more piece of the Christmas crèche is not used for a bouncy ball or thrown in anger because someone wants just one more piece of candy. One of us usually ends up looking like scary Bilbo from Lord of the Rings (pray you never see Laine make this face at you. frightening.)

I should have known it would be a good weekend when it started with me coming home from work to find Romney hanging out on the toilet. “Hi Rom, what‘cha doin’?” “I read magazine daddy!” hmm – wonder where he learned that. We aren’t even trying to potty train Romney but he seems to be doing a pretty good job all on his own.

Saturdays are tricky. We always have things we want to DO and things we want to ACCOMPLISH. We aren't usually able to do both, but yesterday was different. In the morning Lainey and I decided to make a chart of all things we would do for the day. This included cleaning her room, the family room, the bathroom, and then going sledding. I was pretty sure she would immediately start writhing on the floor because she wanted to go sledding NOW (even though it was dark and 10 degrees outside.) But she didn’t fight one bit and in fact was only frustrated that I wasn’t going straight into the bathroom so she could clean the mirror. Romney was excited too and he joined in, but he felt he could only really do a good job if he was wearing his swim goggles (his current favorite accessory).

A funny highlight of the morning was when Romney said, “mommy, I have a booger on my finger!” Marie – “okay Rom, why don’t you get a tissue to wipe it on.” “okay mommy. I do it.” and off he ran. A few seconds later he came into the room with the tissue he had gotten for his finger, only he forgot to rip it off of the rest of the roll of toilet paper so………(if you click on the pictures you can see the toilet paper trail back to the bathroom and Rom carefully cleaning his finger.)

Amazingly, Laine finished her chart and we made it sledding, which was a blast! Some friends had suggested hiking up Neff’s canyon in Olympus Cove with sleds and then sliding down. It turned out to be a great suggestion. It took us awhile to get out of the house and then to convince Marie’s sister Catherine and her boyfriend Derek to come with us but finally we made it! (oh yeah – we had to get lost in the cove once but that was Derek’s fault.) Lainey and Romney rode up the trail in sleds and we all got a good work out. We found a rope swing along the way that was a hit, as were a few impromptu stops for mini-sledding trips by the side of the trail.

Finally the sun was going down and it was time to head back down the mountain. It really didn’t look THAT steep but holy cow – it was crazy. If you click on the pictures you will see a hint of the fear they were experiencing as they zoomed down the hill. Lainey really is fearless on a sled. I don’t know where it comes from but she just loves it and it was so fun to hear her giggle and yell, "faster!" all the way down the hill. Even after we got the bottom we had to stop on two different hillsides so Laine could risk her life just a few more times.

In the end it was one of the magical days. Family time worked! Our house was clean AND we did something fun! It probably won’t happen for another year or two but Marie and I both felt really grateful for the fun day. (and glad Derek and Cath came with us! – I told Derek I hope he doesn’t end up just some random guy in our pictures. Uncle Derek has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?)

The cherry on top of the sundae came, just as you may expect, on Sunday. My meetings for church start at 6:30 AM. My cell phone started to ring this morning between two meetings at about 7:30 am. It was my next door neighbor and I considered not answering it and waiting until after the next meeting to call them back but since I had about 30 seconds of down time I decided to take the call. Lucky I did because they were calling to tell me that they were communicating with Marie by yelling from a window in our house to a window in their house. Sounded strange to me, but as I listened I learned that Lainey had managed to lock herself, Marie, and Romney all in Laine’s bedroom (her lock is on backwards.) It takes a very small screwdriver to unlock the door and they didn’t have one! All the exterior doors of house were locked by my safety-conscious wife, so someone needed to rescue them. Luckily I had mostly quit laughing by the time I got home otherwise I think Laine and I would have both been in trouble.

Okay, gotta go. Lainey is in the bathroom yelling “help! Pee is running down my leg!"

sledding videos

I figured out how to rotate this on my computer but can't seem to get it to rotate here -sorry
Notice Lainey just dragging down the hill and loving it. You can hear her right at the end say "lets do that again!"
We slid down the trail but Laine couldn't get enough so we kept finding other spots to stop and have fun.



Laine was not going for every jump on this hill but you wouldn't have known it to watch her. She would just rocket down and jump up laughing every time.
In training for the luge one day?

baby dolls, dinosaurs, and dumptrucks

we have recently achieved equal opportunity baby doll status. notice that the stroller is carrying dinosaurs, rather than baby dolls, and the baby dolls are taking a ride in the dump truck (thanks cath!), which is also big enough to also carry around the wombat, as it turns out. big boy, big truck.

the other day, I told Lainey we could go to the library and she said, "can we bring our pet dinosaurs?" Laine sensed my immediate hesitation and said in her most persuasive voice, "we'll put them on the leash!"

so this brings up another point, which is how do these kids have such good detectors for when mom is about to say no? (dinosaurs at the library just didn't sound like a great idea, what can I say. wombats and hurricanes are tricky enough.) it's really rather amazing. I don't even have to open my mouth for her to burst into tears in the middle of the floor. someone please tell me that this is just a phase, and don't even mention teenagers.

holiday highlights

• beginning chronologically, laine's preschool Christmas program - particularly watching her swing dancing and singing "Navidad Rock" followed by almost endless repeat performances because I got such a kick out of it! anyone who has seen the hip-shaking rendition of "ven a mi casa, ven a mi casa, Frosty, por favor" will agree that it's worth seeing at least twice...and maybe more. this once expressive baby is now a very expressive preschooler, and her expression is worth seeing up close (just click on it, grandma.)
  

• skiing, skiing, skiing. even lainey got in on the action. she yelled the whole time, "faster! Mom, go faster!" so, what do you call a hurricane in the snow? it did turn ugly for a minute in between the screaming "my hands are frozen" stage and the hot chocolate in the lodge stage. luckily, hot chocolate has serious magic powers and can easily cure what ails a 4 year old. it's beautiful, and skiing lives to see another day!
  
• birth of the sled maniac. let me quote from her letter to Santa: "Dear Santa, I really wanted a dolly but since I don't have a sled then I really want one. Please get it." hopefully Santa won't regret bringing her what she asked for. this girl has no fear! backwards, forwards, sideways, upside down, rightside up, stand up, sit down, you name it, she tried it. she loved it.
  
• dueling harmonicas. thanks ben and dana! b&d are responsible for another family holiday highlight thanks to their new puppy, molly, who sadly has no picture, only a hilarious video that I don't know how to upload. so just imagine this hyper little puppy bouncing all over, lainey mostly ecstatic but sometimes uncertain, and romney hovering on the cusp between laughing and crying. laine's requests for a pet are now more frequent although they usually subside a little after a visit to molly. coincidentally, our neighbor gave the kids a gigantic stuffed dog which lainey promptly named lola, after the name molly didn't get. so now, we tell lainey she has a dog already and it doesn't even poop in our yard! the perfect pet.
  
• I know I mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: powder, powder, powder! seriously love it, especially with my family. here are some of my wonderful people, tearing it up at an undisclosed but very fine location. isn't it gorgeous?