Election 2008

Well, my children were very excited to see Barack Obama win the election tonight. They had both decided several weeks ago that they were going to 'vote' for Obama. Here is an excerpt of the conversation when I asked Jacob why he wanted Obama to be the next president:

"Why do you want Obama to win? What do you know about him that makes you think he will be a good president?"
"I like the way he looks."
"You like the way he looks?"
"I like his hair and his skin color. He looks good."

So Jacob was an Obama supporter based on physical appearance but apparently he talked about it at kindergarten (on the playground, I think) and would ask me almost everyday if I had decided who I was going to vote for. Last Friday he was very worried because I only had a few days left and I HAD to decide soon.

Ryan would flip-flop. He started out being an Obama supporter because he thought Obama's first name was "the Rock" and how cool would it be to have a president named "the Rock Obama". However, being the little brother that he is, in recent days he started professing loyalty to John McCain just to disagree with his older brother. Like many, seeing the excitement and energy of election night, Ryan wanted to be part of the action and is once again a blue child.

To give them credit, Jacob and Ryan tried to follow the campaign as much as their attention spans would allow. They would watch parts of the debates with John and whenever they saw pictures of either candidate in the newspaper they would get very excited.

I wish I had a good picture to post for this but I will just put a few random ones up: the kids with Grandpa Y; the boys in the garage putting on a show (after seeing the Blue's Clue's movie where they put on a show), and two pictures from a field trip to the pumpkin patch that John chaperoned for Jacob's class.

Alison's blessing

Alison was blessed on October 12. It was a beautiful day and we were lucky to have both of John's brothers and their families come as well as my parents and Arnold and 'Nise. Alison did well and was only a little fussy during the blessing. Ryan, on the other hand, was a different story. He was so excited to have his cousins at church that he basically lost control. I was pleading with him to stop talking so I could hear some of the prayer. Here are a few pictures of the day.

The best boys ever!

Our boys really enjoyed General Conference last weekend.  They especially loved watching the Tabernacle choir and trying to find the one man with a mustache.  They called it "Let's find the mustache!"  When they got bored with that game, they decide to play "Let's find the bald boys".  There were a lot more of those than mustaches.  If conference was just singing, they would have no problem watching 8 hours of it.   

 

Another great conference moment was when one of our boys passed by the TV just in time to hear a speaker quote a scripture that had the word "naked" in it.  Quietly, he began to laugh and said "naked (chuckle chuckle) he said naked."  The best part was, my boy was not saying that for anyone else, just for his own enjoyment.

 

Big J is the star student this week at school and everyone had to draw a picture of him today.  He told me that his favorite picture was from Katherine because she drew her and him playing and he really liked how she drew and colored her dress.  He said it was really nice.  He then told me that he asked her to be his very best girlfriend (to differentiate from his best friend that is a boy).  I think she took it a bit different and told him that she would rather just be "friends".

 

 

The tale of two binkies

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Okay, not really but I had to start that way. So, I saw my sister's blog with her little guy and his binky and thought I would share how we got the binkies away from R-guy. It is a sad tale and not our proudest moment as parents. Maybe it can help someone out there...

About 6 months ago, R-guy had just turned 3 so we decided it was time to get rid of the binkies. After age 2 years, binkies are only for the bed and are a powerful parent ally by making bedtime or naptime desirable events. However, after 3 years of age, we (as parents pretending to know what we are doing) decided that it was time to say goodbye. We choose to use the same plan that had worked well for big J: the goodbye binky party and binky fairy bribe. I was nervous about doing it for Jacob because it is deceptive (but so is Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy) but it seemed to work OK, so we tried it again. The plan goes like this: You tell your child that it is time for the binky fairy to come and get the binkies (you can add that the binky fairy gives them to new babies, if they ask). The binky fairy will come and take the binkies and leave a present, whatever you want - within reason. When the child decides they are ok with that, you pretend to call the binky fairy to schedule the pick-up, let the fairy know the wish list, and set a date. Then, you have a goodbye binky party on the scheduled night: make decorations, order pizza, make cupcakes, invite relatives, and give the child lots of attention. After the party, the 3 year old is supposed to take the binkies, put them in a special box, and put them on the porch for the binky fairy to get them. Then in the morning, presents are waiting to help erase the sadness of the binkies leaving.

Everything was going well at the goodbye binky party until it was time to put the binkies in the box and say goodbye. The R-guy even had two binkies to say goodbye to: one for the mouth and one to rub on his cheek so maybe that made it twice as hard. Whatever it was, he started to freak out, running around the house, hitting me, crying uncontrollably, hiding under things. Some of this is captured on film (see below). We finally calmed him down and got him - on his own - to put the binkies in the box and put it outside. As parents, we were feeling HORRIBLE. I wanted to cry but knew we had to follow through. That night, as we put the R-guy to bed, John said "We love you" and the little guy replied "I love my binkies". It was a sad moment. He was able to go to sleep without them, which surprised me. The next morning the fairy presents (we had to get him 2, one for each binky) helped the sadness a bit but he was sad for many days. Even yesterday, R-guy told John that he still missed his binkies. I keep hoping this memory will fade away and we won't have to hear for years about how we scarred him for life by taking away his binkies.

The pictures below document some of the night. It is still sad for me and R-guy to look at the pictures. I am not sure I would call the plan a success. The binkies are gone, but the pain...

Having fun with aunt and uncle - starting to look a little worried.

Hiding with the binkies

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (literally), he puts the binkies in the magic box for the fairy to come and get them.

Our pathetic blog

Our sad little blog has not had any posts for over a month and I will tell you exactly who is to blame for this: the computer. Now, don't think I am trying to push the blame off to someone else and not take responsibility for my actions - it really is the computer's fault! Seriously, this computer is old (at least 10 years) and so very SLOW. So slow you want to choke the mouse. But anyway, it has been an exciting month. Some highlights:

* Alison turned 1 month and 11 1/2 pounds and is nearing 2 months and 12? 13? pounds
* Summer soccer and t-ball ended
* We overcame our end-of-the-Olympics pains. The boys love to pretend they are Michael Phelps whenever we go swimming.
* Aunt Katy came for a visit and took the boys on several fun trips
* Grandma and Grandpa Young came down to visit Alison
* We took a last day of summer vacation trip to the Oakland Zoo
* Jacob started kindergarten!
* Ryan started preschool!
* I became officially un-disabled (according to the State of California) after giving birth
* I became a homework helper
* We took a family ferry ride to SF and visited some tourist spots with the kids (I think their favorite part was seeing "the bush man" at Fisherman's wharf. Most of you know what I am talking about - the guy disguised as a plant who scares people for money. Jacob was scared of him at first but for days after, that was all they could both talk about.
* Alison slept for 7 hours straight one night!!
* Our summer garden came to end except for some tomatoes on the blossom rot damaged plants and a second crop from our cantaloupe, banana squash, and pumpkin plants. We just need a few more weeks of warm weather for the second crop to fully ripen.

Here are some selected photos from the last month.

The two youngest

Gramps & Grandma S and Aunt Katy


The family at "the bench"*


Beautiful day in SF


Grandpa Y and the kids


Jacob and his homework helper

* John's eagle scout project at a regional park in SJ. It is about an hour hike uphill to get there. For some reason, we decided to go on the Saturday Katy was in town. It was a super hot day and Alison was just a few weeks (like 2) old. Amazingly enough, the boys hiked the whole way and we did not have to carry them at all but it did help to have Katy there. It was a fun afternoon.

Trash talking at Tiny Tots soccer

Ryan has been going to parent/kid soccer classes for the last several months, and I believe this is his second or third session. He is one of the older kids in the class and by now knows all the games the coach uses. When we enrolled him this time for the same class, we were concerned he would be bored, but the coach likes him and said he was a little young for the next class. Our concerns were justified as the following story from last Saturday will attest.

The coach had a miniature soccer field set up and the game was dribbling red light green light from one end line to the other. Ryan is somewhat of a spoiler because the coach can only get at most one red light in before Ryan is at the opposite end of the field. So after a couple trips back and forth and a lot of waiting for everyone else, Ryan says to me, “Everybody in this class are doofuses.” I’m sure at least a few parents heard him so I’m in full on damage control. I come back with, “Ryan that is not a nice word we don’t call people that.” Then he says, “Everybody in this class are butts.” “Do you want to go sit in the car and soccer will be over for the day?” Ryan, “No. Yes. Everybody are booties (meaning butts). No, I don’t want to go to the car.”

I don’t think we do anything to cause our children to behave and say some of the things they do, but man everybody looks down at you when your kid does something like that. My kids are also especially fond of informing people that they have fat tummies.

Oh the joys...

Some pictures of Alison (aka Ki-Ki)

Here are a few pictures of Alison that we took on Sunday. I decided to give her a bath and then put on the dress and then I figured we should take pictures. This was all at a time when we should have been making/having dinner, but sometimes you just have to take pictures of the baby. I tried to get Jacob and Ryan to put on nice shirts so that they could be in a nice picture with Alison but only Jacob complied. Ryan, in his 3 year old way, said that he did not feel like changing his shirt for the picture. Hence, the orange shirt.

Jacob, Alison, and Ryan in the backyard. The boys called her "ki-ki" before she was born and while we were very clear that it would not be her name, even John and I are having a hard time not calling her Ki-ki, the kik-ster, kik-meister, kiks, etc. I think the nickname will stay around for awhile.

Alison getting a little tired of the photo shoot.