Girl's Night Out with Lauren

Dennis has been gone the last few nights with the boys. He took them to Utah to help my brother out with a project. Peace and quiet are highly overrated, I've decided. I miss my noisy, tooting, feuding little boys. But the upside to it is the one-on-one time I've gotten to spend with Lauren. I've loved it! This evening she pulled out all of her hair clips and put them in her hair one by one. Then went into my closet and on tip-toes, pointed and grunted at the necklace she wanted to wear. Then she went to my make-up drawer, put on some lipstick and blush, and strutted around oohing and aahing at herself in the mirror. I could never get tired of this.

Skiing

To start our President's day weekend out, Dennis and I got babysitters for Luke and Lauren and took Camden to try down-hill skiing for his first time. We decided to go "a la mexicana" (as Jimmy calls it) and have me teach him how to ski. I've only been skiing a handful of times, and even though I had done alright, I wasn't too confident in my abilities to teach a six year old how to ski on his first time. I should have given Camden a little more credit though because he did great. Within a couple of hours, he insisted that he wanted to ride the chair lift and go down the beginner's hill by himself, without me holding on to his hand or the harness. I was pretty nervous for him as I imagined him plowing into every skiier in his path and sailing off the steep drop-offs. I kept yelling out instructions from behind, but he amazed me and got to the bottom of the hill without incident. He was so proud of himself, which was the best part of it all. It reminds me of something a very wise friend of mine said, "You build self-confience by doing hard things." The best part for me was watching the ear-to-ear smile on his face most of the evening and hearing him tell us how much of a blast he was having. We will definitely be investing in some ski equipment!

Well once again, my amazing husband has done it again. Ever since I got back from my ski trip to Tamarack, I've been telling him that I want to go cross-country skiing as a family. I wanted to bring the kids with us so Camden could try it out and to give them a day to play in the snow and enjoy the mountain air. So Dennis got to work and took our double jogger/bike trailer and built this ski attachment for it to ride on. They are pretty solid attachments and it worked great. I was surprised at how smoothly it pulled while Luke and Lauren sat in it. The most amazing thing was how quickly he was able to build it.

Lauren thought it was terrible that we would make her sit in a stinkin' trailer while there was so much fluffy snow all around to play in and screamed almost the entire time. I keep telling Dennis that when he goes coyote hunting, he shouldn't waste so much time and money buying and practicing on expensive coyote calls- he should just take Lauren with him. I'm sure her voice carries much farther and she's a much more authentic reproduction of the injured rabbit sound that they're trying to mimic.

On the way back to the truck I asked Dennis if I could pull the sled back while he hung back with Camden. I didn't realize how much of an incline we had been going down, but it was a great work out to pull it back.

When poor Luke had had enough of a screaming banshee in his ear, he decided to hop out and ride on the outside frame.

I was so proud of my Camden as he learned how to cross-country ski. He was getting frustrated at first but after getting a stern talking-to from me on attitude and effort, he bucked up and had a good time. Instead of moving his legs back and forth in a gliding motion, he decided that hunkering down with bent knees and pulling himself forward with just his poles was much easier. We couldn't talk him into standing up straighter and using his legs to help him along but I was surprised at how long he lasted doing this! Dennis and I agreed that we definitely didn't have the arm strength to do this for 2 hours straight, but Camden seemed to have developed his own little M.O. so we didn't interfere. He told us he definitely enjoys down-hill skiing more but I was proud of his positive attitude and lack of complaining.

Lukeisms

I could write a book on this kid with just funny things that he says. Not a day goes by that he doesn't crack me up with some smart alec little comment that he makes. I just wish I could capture his little high-pitched voice in all of his little sassing because watching his twisting facial expressions with his humongous eyes and eyelashes are part of what makes what he says so comical. I wish I could say he gets his cheekiness from his Dad, but I'm afraid he's been watching me a little too closely over the course of his 3 short years and he's apparently a quick learner.

Today, as he was watching Dora on TV, he was listening to the map repeat over and over the way to Dora's castle. Finally I heard an exasperated growl from the living room, "Stop it! I know the way!" followed by a disgusted sigh.

When I'm doing something he doesn't like, like telling him to clean up his room, he'll say, "Mom, if you keep being mean like that, I'm going to call Santa and tell him to come and take the waffle maker away that he gave you for Christmas and give it to his reindeer!"

I always find it amusing when I make reference to his age. When I say he is three years old, he impatiently corrects me saying that he is 7. I think he chose this number because it's one year older than Camden. The funniest is when he'll tell this to a stranger and they look at him a little startled and confused, not daring to correct or question him just in case he really is the smallest 7-year old they've ever met. One time he non-chalantly told the babysitter when she asked how old he was, that he was 26. I'm glad he's come down a few years on his age since then.

When I'm putting him to bed and reading him a story, I will sometimes tickle him and ask him, "Tell me Luke, who's your favorite mom?" Without missing a beat, he says, "Lauren," "Camden," or "Dad." I'm convinced that most of what he says is an attempt to get a reaction from me or whoever else he's saying it to.

But then he can also say the sweetest things. For Valentine's Day, my card read as follows, "Dear Mom, I got to flush the toilet. It is Valentine's Day. I want to help put Lauren's stuff away. I am going to help you make your bed and dust. Thank you for cleaning up the garbage on the floor. I love you Mom. Thank you for playing with me. Love, Luke."

He also reminds me often to not be mean to the Holy Ghost and do things that will make him want to go away. What a great reminder. Last night he came in my room and saw a statuette of Jesus and said, "That's Jesus, Mom. He made us." He has the ability to internalize and understand things that probably went way over my head when I was his age.

Oh, how I love this kid.

Recent happenings

Not too much new is going on, but a few things I wanted to write about.

First, Camden finally lost his first tooth last week. He was starting to get a little worried that all of the other kids in his class seemed to be losing them faster than a bunch of hillbillies in a bar room brawl, but none of his would budge. He finally got his first loose tooth but had heard all sorts of horror stories about how much it hurt to pull it out so he wouldn't let me touch it. After about a week of the thing barely hanging on, I was afraid it would fall out in his sleep or during recess and we'd have a nice bloody mess to deal with. Last Wednesday night I told him, "Camden, did you know the tooth fairy pays double on Wednesdays?"

"Really?!"

"Yup, it's true. I bet if you let me pull it out right now she'll bring you $2 tonight."

So he came over, opened right up and out it came. I don't think it was quite as painless as I had told him it would be though. I love his face in this picture.


My little Luke has also had quite a bit to say lately. On Sunday he yelled at me, "Mom! You're RUINING my life!!!" Oh geez, I thought I had at least another 10 years before I had to hear that one. Keep in mind he is only 3 years old.

There were two other things that he said that left me rolling but I think Dennis would have my head on a platter if I posted them. Let's just say that Sigmund Freud would have had a hay day with his comments and that if Luke ever came across what he said as a teenager, he would probably die of embarassment. So for his sake, I'll have to just tuck those two away for me and Dennis to laugh about. I'm just glad someone other than myself appreciates my small-chestedness.

My kids seem to go through these phases of weird obsessions. Lauren seems to have a thing lately with getting Desitin diaper cream and rubbing it all over her face and nose. Maybe she's figured out that it clears up sinuses or something.

My dad brought Lauren this sweet little dress from Peru. I put her in it on Sunday and couldn't get over how cute my little princess looked.

Finally, I decided to give yoga a try today since I had heard so much hype about it. My sister Patty told me that a lot of bikers and runners she knew did it to boost their athletic performance and my brother told me he really got into it last year. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it for myself though. I'm definitely not used to working out like that. Usually I have an instructor screaming at me through a microphone with music blaring or I work out on my own and finish drenched in sweat. Needless to say I didn't even break a sweat or get my heart rate up once, but it did feel good to relax and stretch in a dimmed room to quiet music. The instructor's waist-length dreads were pretty sweet too. I don't know how doing it is supposed to give me arms like Madonna or legs like Jennifer Aniston but I'll try it a couple more times.