Families

So, on a different, but related topic as the last post, yesterday while at my mom's house, we saw a ladybug, and Nate stepped on it on the carpet. My mom and I both were like, Oh Nate, don't do that! The lady bug was not smushed, but a little beat up for a bit (I think she eventually made a full recovery.) But after we told him not to do it, and were looking at the bug, Nate said, Oh, I didn't know she had a family. And all of the sudden he was more concerned about the situation because the bug had a family. So he talked about it a bit yesterday, when he would see a bug, or remember the ladybug. Then today there was an ant in the kitchen, and well, family or no, that doesn't happen. We don't like them to leave alive, because then they bring back their friends. So I smashed it, and then Nate asked, does that ant have a family? I told him yes, but that there were so many of them he wouldn't be missed :) This could be a long summer if all bugs have families and need to be mourned if they get smashed.

Love it!

I am loving the weather out here this week. Mid to high 60's and sunny. The soggy ground is drying out. We've been playing outside, if even only for half an hour before daddy comes home. Today we played outside most of the day. Went to a play date at the park this morning, then preschool and naps, and then we stayed after at preschool and played on the playground for an hour. After we got home, there was a quick drink and potty break, and then it was outside for another hour to play in the yard. I cleaned my living room this morning, and it's still clean!!!
Tomorrow we have another play date, and I'm sure most of the time will be spent playing outside in the back yard at this kid's house.
In related news, I believe that I am such a terrible mother for killing my child's right to childhood rituals. I didn't want Nate to make a mess of the leaf piles I was making, so I told him that there were bugs and spiders in the piles. Now he's afraid to go near them. He added snakes to the list all on his own. :) But every time we're playing outside he freaks out if he sees a bug. I just tell him that it's outside, and there are bugs and spiders outside, so he has to deal with it if he wants to play outside.

Look to the left

If you look to the left, you will notice that there are less than 100 days until this little monkey joins our family.

A Haircut

Earlier this week Nate decided to cut his hair. He's done it from time to time in the past- a few strands here or there. This time he lifted up a large chunk right in the front of his head, and cut it right next to the scalp. At the time, he was quite shaggy, so his hair hid it well. The problem was, that he was quite shaggy, and for a while I'd been trying to convince him to let me cut his hair. So I did finally cut his hair. It's not too bad, but it is noticeable. It really just looks like I made a mistake while chopping his hair. Oh well. Hair grows back, and with this one, it grows back before I know it.

My worst fear

So last night I had this dream. I was with a large group of people, and we were hiking or something, looking for something I guess, almost like a treasure hunt. We were in this weird cave like place, except that I don't think it was actually a cave. So I'm up ahead of most of the group, and I'm at the top of a crest in the path. It was perhaps 30 or so feet up, and next to the path was a sharp drop off. At the top of this crest there was a large tree, and as it happened, a ladder. So all of the sudden, I see Graham climbing up the ladder, there level with me, 30 feet off the ground. He was on the opposite side of the ladder from where I was. He said, Hi mommy, and just kept on climbing. I wondered what to do about it for a few seconds, and then I woke up suddenly. It was one of those dreams where you have to get up and do something (if you're pregnant, it would be appropriate to use the bathroom) just so that you don't continue the dream when you go back to sleep.
So that is my greatest fear- my children falling from a great height. In the few minutes that it took for me to fall back asleep, I sat there worrying about this slide at our favorite playground. It's probably between 12-15 ft tall, and it does not have enclosed railings on the sides. Graham is going to want to do that slide all the time this summer, and I'm already nervous about it.
A few years ago, when Nate was just about one year old, we took a trip to Antietam Battle Field, and there is a shot tower there that you can go up into. The top of the tower has half walls, and then is just open. I remember distinctly the fear of what if Nate wiggled out of my arms while I was holding him so he could look over the wall. Another time we were out in Utah, and we took the ski lift up at Sundance. That was one of the most terrifying moments of my life! Nate was about 15 mos old, and I had him strapped to me in a carrier, but all the same, I am still trying to maintain a death grip on him, while white knuckling the bar holding us in. I just kept on thinking, don't get wiggly, don't get wiggly. Mean while, in the chair behind us My brother has his 3 kids who are all sitting, and wiggling, and turning around, and in general having a good time. If I hadn't been so concerned about my own situation, that may have given me a heart attack.
So that's my greatest fear- my kids falling from a great height. What's your greatest fear?

Arrrgh Matey!

Nate has really been into pirates lately. I think it started when he watched the Scooby Doo and the Ghost Pirates over and over and over again. (I think he has it memorized) Since then he's been playing with is playmobil pirates quite a bit. He even turned Noah's ark into a pirate ship one time. Aaaarrrgh Matey!

A little more redneck

So, as if we weren't redneck enough already with the satellite dish and fire hydrant front and center in our front yard... For the past week this beauty has been parked in front of my house. Don't know whose it is, or where it came from, but I really thinks it adds that je ne sais quoi that we've been missing, don't you think?

My children are freaks.....

.....and they get it from me. Some people who get little glimpses into my, shall we say, idiosyncrasies, may notice that I have this random need for order in things. To look around my house, one would not believe it, but that's a different story. For instance, the other night I had friends over for a game night, and as I was waiting for the game to progress I sat there flipping all of the cards so that they were facing the same direction. A while ago I was at a friend's house, and she had a table runner with a little fringe on it. I sat there as we discussed the book that night, and I straightened the fringe, so that all of the strands sat at a 90* angle, and were evenly spaced. It's just something I do to pass the time. I would not say I'm compelled to do it, it's not compulsive (I swear, I can stop at any time!) I know that I get this from my mom. As it turns out, I handed it down to my children too.

It was almost 2 years ago that I walked into the dining room so see Nate had done this with his crackers:

And then yesterday, Graham got tired of eating his hot dogs. So what did he do? This:

What can I say? We're all a bunch of freaks.

We're Young and Hip

Last Monday night Jesse and I went with our friends the Vandres to a Muse concert. It happens to be the second time that we have seen Muse in concert in about 5 months. We sound pretty die hard when I say that. Really, it's just that Muse opened for U2 when we saw them in September. We had general admission tickets again, so we were pretty close to the stage, but the venue only seated about 10,000 so everyone was pretty close to the stage. Word to the wise- a rock concert is a lot more fun when you're not pregnant. It could be that in another 3 months that would have put me into labor! The stage setup was pretty cool. This is how they started the show.

Oooh, lasers!

So it was a ton of fun. But Jesse promised that we would not go to any more concerts while I was pregnant. That's OK, we just saw just about the only two bands that we would want to pay to see. We were all dead the next day too. Poor Mike, he's a new bishop, and he had to conduct his first funeral the next day, and Dessi, she had a sick kid to come home to, and all the next day. I guess I won't complain about being pregnant. I just got to stay home the next day, and even got a good nap in since it was a preschool day!