Meet Spot

We went to IKEA. I thought I was watching Nicholas, but when we arrived at the checkout counter I realized my very stealthy son had done something - he had put a dog and a dog bed (stuffed of course) into the bag. I asked him what it was. He told me that he was "a good boy for sharing his stroller" and he wanted a treat. So I caved.

He thinks the one-child stroller is his because he has used it all the time. When I put Abby into it, and make him walk, there is a revolt in the Wunderlich household. But if I take the 2-child stroller he doesn't want to ride (normally). So when travelling to a store where the 2-child stroller won't work - like IKEA - I try the one-child stroller and a bribe for Nicholas. It's just this time he chose his bribe. He really was a good kid about it, especially because it was raining at IKEA.

So meet Spot. The newest member of the Wunderlich household. Spot sleeps in his bed, in Nicholas' room. Or in Nicholas' fort. It turns out that since Spot is Nicholas' baby - his words not mine - Spot also gets to hang out in the play pen when Abby's not there or in Abby's swing.

Who knew stuffed animals were such a chore!

Solid foods!

We are eating solid foods now - well Abby is. The rest of the family was already eating solid food.

She started needing to be fed 4-5 oz of formula every 1-1.5 hours, so I decided to introduce rice cereal. She was okay with it at first. However, once I mixed a teaspoon of bananas in, she gobbled the stuff up. I'm not that shocked. Both my kids love bananas. Plus, when Abby is eating "baby bananas" (Nicholas named them), then Nicholas will eat bananas too.

I'm wondering if that is going to work for vegetables too?

Rainy day conversations.

Nicholas is a bargainer. He likes to try and bargain his way into things. Or talk his way into things.

So today it is storming in Sacramento. Lots of rain, hail, wind, and freezing temperatures. Needless to say, I think it is a perfect day to stay inside. He thinks it is a perfect day to go outside.

"Mommy, I want to go outside," he says. "No, it is yucky outside," I reply.

He thinks hard and says, "But mommy, the raindrops are lonely. I need to keep them company." I say, "No, they have all the other raindrops and grass and trees and leaves to keep them company."

He doesn't even miss a beat before he says, "I need to blow bubbles outside so they can fly with the wind." I repeat an earlier reply, "No, it is a yucky day outside."

Needless to say, this whole conversation was while he's wearing shorts and a t-shirt because he didn't want to wear any of his clean pants this morning. He wanted his dirty jeans, which were in the washer.

Still not one to quit he says, "But it is not yucky outside. It is only raining a little bit." He says this as the rain is puddling and pooling in our yard and is being blown sideways because of the wind.

A little while later he says, "But mommy, I have to go outside." So I finally give him a choice (see the Love and Logic philosophy working here), "You can go outside in your rain jackets and rain boots or stay inside and do puzzles with mommy." I thought the puzzles would be a big hit - normally I cannot get him to stop playing puzzles with me. But quick as can be he gets his rain jacket and boots on - I have never seen him get dressed so fast - and runs outside. It takes all of a minute before it starts hailing again and he comes running inside saying "I'm all done. The ice cubes falling on my head were cold."

I should've just let him out earlier and he would've been done.

Gardening buddies

So we spent some time gardening today. These were my gardening buddies. I have Abby in her black and white stripped leg warmers and Nicholas and his dump truck.

Nicholas took all the clippings from the bushes and trees and put them into his dump truck and made a pile. I tried to get him to make a pile that was closer to him, but he wanted to take the clippings all the way across the yard in his dump truck to the one pile.

What you don't see is his pliers - those he brought out to help me cut. He would place them on a branch and go "snip" and then tell me he cut some branches. He would also use the pliers to grab branches and put them into the bag at the end of the afternoon.

Abby fell asleep shortly after we started. She has a pavlovian response to being outside - she sees the sun and she closes her eyes and goes to sleep. Unless, of course, you want her to do that. Then she stays awake.

So Abby slept for our 2.5 hours of gardening. But so it goes. Nicholas and I got a lot done.

Jon finished up later by pulling out the dead plants and actually cutting the grass. Now we just have to get new plants and put them in the holes where the old plants were.

Lowe's - here we come!

Family pictures!

We took some family pictures before church one Sunday. Here they are. Aren't my kids growing up? How in the world do they grow up so fast?

Abby's baby blessing.

Today was Abby's baby blessing. We had a great time with lots of support from friends and our ward family and our family.

I spent most of last night finishing Abby's dress. I feel like I have been "finishing" it for weeks. I have had the dress part made. But last night was spent doing the details and hemming and everything. It turned out beautifully. I wanted her to wear leopard print socks underneath, since the dress was long enough no one would notice. Her father vetoed that option, and she wore pink ones.

Abby was such a beautiful girl . And she looked great. Nicholas behaved beautifully. Her dad gave her a great blessing and even got her name right. I have heard stories of fathers who do the wrong name at the blessing, so that's the name the child is known as in the church. Good thing Jon got the right one.

Thank you to our Bishop for letting us do it at our home, and for Br. Suoafoa (sp?) for being here so we could do the blessing. Now Jon just needs to fill out the paperwork and hand it in. Then she's officially on the records of the church.

If you are unaware, Mormons do not baptize children until they are 8 years old. It is a doctrinal choice made because children younger than 8, according to the Church, are unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to Baptize them and cleanse them of sin before they can sin (The original sin doctrine is not held as a belief in the Mormon church). So instead babies get blessed - "dedicated" is what some other Christian denominations call it - to God. The father - traditionally - does the blessing.

We had a lot of fun and loved having everyone around. Thanks everyone. And yes, she will be in her dress tomorrow at church. I didn't spend the time to make it for her to wear it once.

Egyptian riots

The whole thing about violence is that it begets violence. When the riots in Egypt turned violent it was a horrible turning point. But did anyone expect it to go differently?

In order to have peaceful protests you have to have two things: A respect for the law and a police force willing to keep things peaceful. Neither of these things exist in Egypt. Therefore, violence occurs. If you think the police would be effective, look at the footage - the security forces had their tanks out to keep the two groups separate and then sat on them, watching, while the violence was occurring.

Perhaps the most interesting side of these riots is this - there are no women involved. At least, none in the footage that is shown to the world. If you look at the footage of riots and protests in Europe, Russia, and here, women are always there. Women consider themselves part of the society, and so they are part of the protests and riots.

In Egypt, women aren't part of the riots and protests, which means they aren't part of the society. It is telling that in that whole area of the world (Middle East) the place where you can see women voting and protesting is . . . Iraq. Not Saudi Arabia, not Iran, and not Egypt. But Iraq.

Think what you want about that little fact. But it is an important note.