Snow Leopards

Today, it was snowing, so they decided they needed their snow boots on (makes sense)... and cat costumes (not so much).

Then we went to the grocery store.

Eagle

Last Monday we went to my friends farm, just north of Salt Lake--about 30 minutes from our house. She had told me that during the winter eagles hang out there. And sure enough, there were two taking it easy in the trees lining the west side of their property. Stuart, Alison, Amy, and I walked underneath them. When one took off, you could hear the wind. Huge, big, majestic and completely inspiring. The kids and I loved it. I can't wait to go back out. (I wish I had a better camera.)

Another Baby Conversation

(I'm helping Alison get dressed and she's talking about babies, again.)

Alison: When we were babies. Daddy took care of Stuwart and Awison and Mommy took care of Stuwart and Awison.

Crazy Mom: Yup. We loved taking care of you guys.

Alison: Daddy held a tiny Awison and Mommy held a tiny Awison.

Crazy Mama: Yeah. We held you both. We loved you very much.

Alison: Daddy held a tiny Stuwart and Mommy held a tiny Stuwart.

Crazy Mama: uh, huh (starting to drift from the conversation

Alison: Yup. Mommy was waiting for Awison and Stuwart on a boat. (What?)

Crazy Mama: I was waiting on a boat?

Alison: Yes. Mommy was waiting on a boat for Awison and Stuwart. Then Stuwart and Awison POPPED (said with emphasis) out of Mommy's belly.

Crazy Mama: You're right. That's pretty much how it happened.

Stuart got his own baby for his birthday. (I know, I didn't blog that--I should, it was a great day.) Today, we worked on some accessories. His baby is much cozier and he's pleased to be able to provide responsive nurturing care--he's been waiting for a sling for a while because "Mommy, babies, they wuv swings." It went strait off the sewing machine onto his little body and he ran upstairs to check it out in the mirror.

"Thank you Mom. I wuv my choo-choo trwain swing."

December you say?

It does not feel like December. At all. Except my Christmas tree and decorations are up, we've been listening to Christmas music, and today we received our first Christmas Card in the mail (Yah, Reggies, thanks!).

Evidence 1: It rained last night, but this morning it was sunny and bright. The sun was shining on all the little droplets left behind. The street sweeper was out instead of the snow plow

Evidence 2: My last tomatoes are ripening in the comfort of their little box on my counter.

Evidence 3: And, I have firm happy squash under my bed, but maybe that is typical in December. I'm not sure.

Math for the Littlest Minds

Sometimes I have to remind myself how abstract numbers really are. Stuart and Alison are stretching their little minds around addition and subtraction and I find it utterly fascinating to watch.

For instance, yesterday we had to go to several errands and I witnessed, in a few quiet moments, Stuart's mind expanding, right there, before my very eyes. I had told them a bunch of times while we were getting ready to leave that we had 5 errands to do. After the first errand I said, "We have five errands to do today. We just finished one. How many more errands do we have to do!"

"FIVE!"

"Mmmm, nope, we had five when we started but we just finished one so we don't have five anymore. How many do we still have to do?"

"Five."

Uhm, Yeah. I showed them what five looked like on my fingers and put in my thumb saying we had just gone to Harmon's and counted my four remaining fingers.

After Joann's, we got in the car and I asked again, "How many errands do we have left?"

Alison: FIVE!!!

Stuart: We have five errands (putting up five fingers). Bread (puts one down). Strings (puts another down). THREE!!!

I was elated with the 50% effective lesson.


Several days ago I bought this bucket of gum at Sam's club. I purchased it with the intention of using the gum as something to temper those sweet cravings they get (because I spawned them), without the sugar ingestion that say, umm, four mint oreos would have. The functionality has transformed but I'd buy 4.5 lbs again in a moment.

Today I arbitrarily chose the number 8. We talked about how many fingers it is. You know, 5 and 3 make 8!!! (This is shocking news for little birds who previously thought that finger counting was sadly limited to the first 5 numbers.) I watched as Stuart carefully counted audibly to five as he chose his gum, then started over at one and counted to three. Crazy huh? Since he knows how to count to 8 fluently.

Of course, this is where it all went wrong. Because, he noticed that he didn't choose a green one and so he added a green one. But then when he counted, he had nine. So, he put two back. And recounted. When he had seven, he put one back. Recounted--six, and didn't know what to do.

It's a process, processing all those numbers. I love it.

Stuart, showing off his 8 gums in his pocket.

Temple Square

This year, we took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy christmas lights in relative warmth. It was the most beautiful night last night and everybody had a perfect time. I remember seeing the lights when I was a kid and thinking it was the most magical thing I'd ever witnessed. This year it felt exactly the same way.

An Odd Post

I recently purchased a set of Cuisipro (does anybody else pronounce this brand "Queasy-pro"?) measuring spoons. I don't want to turn this into a consumerism blog, but these are fabulous. They are heavy--I love stainless steel measuring utensils--yet beautifully slender. I've spent 8 years irritated that my teaspoon won't fit through the neck of my spice jars. Well, I thought that my troubles were all over until today, when I grabbed my brand new trim measuring spoons and noticed I picked up the "Odd Sizes". And lest you doubt, they are odd. For instance, doesn't it seem like a 1/3 teaspoon would be infinitely more useful than a 2/3 teaspoon. And pinch--I always thought the whole idea of this term was that you weren't supposed to measure.
P.S. No need to leave comments about my lousy subject prioritizing when choosing to write a blog post. I'm already annoyed with myself that this is the theme to take me out of writer's block today.