Lest Our Disappearance Disturbs Your Tender Soul

This is just a post to say that I probably won't post much for a while.  A bit silly to post about not posting, but here it is.

We are currently foster parents to some really amazing kids who I would love to write about and post pictures, but that is basically forbidden.  So alas, I cannot.  And posting about the rest of us while leaving them out just wouldn't make any sense most of the time.  I may occasionally do updates on Zeke and Ash (which I guess is about all I ever do anyway) and all my other posts will just go unpublished.

We are doing well.  A little crazy. A lot overwhelmed.  And blessed far beyond what we deserve.

Real Superheroes

While looking at himself in the mirror in his Superman pajamas Zeke said, "Mom, you know what, Superman just raises one of his arms like this and then he can fly! How can he do that?" [brief pause] "Oh yeah, I remember, the sun."

I said, "Yeah, maybe if you were on Krypton you would be able to fly!"

Zeke laughed in a that's-just-silly tone and said, "Mom, Krypton isn't real. Remember?"

"True, even superman isn't real." I replied.

"Yeah, the only REAL superheroes are me and Ashlynn."

Four Years Old

The Zekester is FOUR!  He starts Kindergarten in a year.  Yikes.  And super exciting.  Everytime I see a newborn I am amazed at how tiny they are, and each time it is like I have completely and utterly forgotten that my own kids were ever that little.  But they were (see proof)

 

But it is crazy how hard it is to really really remember it.  So I know I will never perfectly remember Zeke at age four  because I will  be too busy loving Zeke at age 7 or 13 or 18.  But I want to remember as best as I can.

 

Zeke absolutely amazes us with how sweet he is.  He seems to be an anomoly of a kid, because he is just super nice.  Oh he is a kid alright, and he will get grumpy or take toys occasionally, or all those things kids (and adults) do.  But on the whole, he is almost outrageously considerate.  If he is getting a drink he gets one for Ashlynn. If he is reading a book he offers one for Ashlynn.  If Ashlynn is sad he runs off in search of Quack-Quack or her blankie, without even anybody asking and he loads her up on hugs.  He does the same for Trustin and I and any friends that are around.  I am struggling to put his sweetness into words, but Trustin and I are constantly impressed by this amazing kid and the way he thinks of others.

Speaking of his sweetness and his uncanny ability to melt his mom's heart: Last week Trustin and Zeke were looking at a picture of Trustin and I on our wedding day.  They talked about that day and how I was wearing a poofy dress and then Trustin said "Mommy sure looked beautiful that day, huh?" Zeke responded frankly, "Well yeah, always!"  Thanks Zeke!

Zeke's current major interest has shifted slightly from superheroes (only slightly, mind you) to RescueBots.  He loves to pretend to be the little boy Cody and have Ashlynn and I choose a character while Trustin is typically Megatron or Daddytron.  While much of the time this game entails defeating villains and running around, playing Rescuebots often means that while in character we pretend to ride bumper cars (and Zeke always says "Everybody keeps crashing into be because my car is every color they like") eat cotton candy and also make pretend chocolate chip cookies.  None of these activities are on the show, yet somehow they have become typical RescueBot activities.

Zeke and his cousin Zach really wanted to be on a soccer team together and Monday was his first game.  There is nothing quite like a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds running around in confusion kicking the ball in whichever direction they happen to be running or stopping to make silly faces with each other as the game goes on around them. 

Zeke and Zach were quite dependent on each other during the game and as the ball would move down the field and the coach would holler out for them to run Zeke would ignore his coach until he could be sure Zachy was running too, and the reverse was equally true.  For the first half Zeke wouldn't kick the ball, and would just stare at it when it landed in front of him until somebody else came to kick it.  But by the end he had kicked it several times (usually with hesitancy and confusion, but followed up by high fives).  We can't wait to see the rest of the season!

Zeke enjoys being a little prankster too.  Most of his pranks are prefaced with "Mommy, don't turn around" or "Mommy, don't look over here," accompanied by a outrageously proud grin, and finished off with me squirted or stickered or otherwise attacked.

Bedtime with Zeke has become a really special time lately.  We are making an effort not to hurry through it and get to our breather time and instead are enjoying it as the perfect time to just be one on one with the kids.  We have had a lot of special chats and silly moments that we probably would have missed out on otherwise.  Zeke of course makes no effort to hurry through bedtime either and is happy to talk about anything he can think of.  He also milks me for every bedtime song he can get out of me.  A favorite tradition at bedtime is that after books, Zeke and whoever's night it was to read to him hide and then call out for the other parent to come and find them.  My personal favorite hiding spot is when Zeke sits on his bookshelf where his lamp belongs underneath a blanket and with the lampshade on his head.  Quite the disguise. 

I've done terrible about writing down the silly things he says or the funny games he comes up with, but I am so glad I get to be a part of them and have that sweet silly guy lighting up my life everyday.  Between him and Ashlynn and my marriage to the world's most incredible, and perfect-for-me man, I am one lucky lady. 

The Little Lady Who Isn't So Little Anymore

Warning: long windedness about an incredibly cute little girl to follow:

Warning number two: We have discovered the truth behind the addage "what you don't use, you lose." This year has been characterized by a lack of picture taking, which was quickly followed up by the disappearance of our camera.  Subsequently, you don't get to see many pictures of Miss Ashlynn, which is really a shame.

Ashlynn turned two last week.  She varies between insisting that she is a big girl and insisting that she is still a baby, and can be quite upset if you call her the wrong one at a given moment.  I can understand; I'm struggling with the transition to her being a big girl too.  She is a cuddly little thing when she wants to be and sometimes will let me cuddle her up in her blankie or towel and just snuggle her and it feels like heaven, holding my little baby.  A few weeks ago she was sick and as I held rocked her in my arms in the middle of the night I wondered if I was sick too because I wasn't pining away for my own bed like my normal middle of the night self would do.  I was loving holding her and easing away her tears at what to her was unexplainable "feel icky."  So I get to snuggle her, and I love that.  But in so many ways, she is definitely growing, and not just out of her clothes, though she is doing that too (anybody else find that all 2T dresses must be designed for girls in the 0 percentile for height?).

Ashlynn's newly acquired nickname is "Little Laffy Taffy."  She is the laughingest kid I've ever seen.  She will sit in her chair or wherever she is and suddenly start laughing, half fake, but then growing real and she will just laugh and laugh and laugh, trying to get Zeke, Trustin or I to join in, (which we can't help doing).  When I push her on the swing (which is possibly her favorite pastime) she will just laugh and laugh like it is the funniest thing in the world, and when I add sound effects, it gets even more hilarious.  I taught the kids about underdogs and now we do a whole variety of under-swings, such as "under-Hulk," "Under-Black Panther," "Under-Dragon" (any guesses who requests these three?) and "Under-monkey" "Under-Cookie" and "Under-sheep.  When I push Ashlynn on our own swingset underdogs aren't really an option so Ashlynn requests sound-effect pushes such as "piggy" "lady-bug" (I know, I wasn't too sure how to do that sound effect either) and "princess push."

Ashlynn, despite the superhero focus of her upbringing, is quite certainly, our little princess.  She has never seen a princess movie besides snippets of Tangled and yet she loves princesses, from princess diapers, to princess shoes,  and princess jammies.  She doesn't play make-believe princess games at all, but she in quite simple terms knows that "Ashin a princess."

She also loves her baby doll and all her accoutrements.  She recently named her baby doll "Quack-quack" and spends much of her day pushing her in the stroller, or carting her around to do whatever she is doing.

Ashlynn loves colors and uses the terms all the time, though rarely correctly.  She insists that she wants a yellow bowl or a red spoon while pointing at a blue or green one, but she is quite adamant that she needs a specific color.  Sadly, she actually seems to be getting the colors right more often than not lately, while I found the previous stubborn but wrong color designations to be adorable.  He favorite color to request is definitely yellow, but she doesn't seem to favor any color in actual fact.

One sweet thing about Ashlynn is that she is a believer in the power of kisses.  It used to be that she would come to us with an injury and ask us to kiss it better.  Recently she discovered that it is far more efficient to just kiss in herself.  And she liberally bestows her kisses on anybody else who has an "owwie." I got blisters on my ankles last week and pretty much every time she see them she bends over and kisses them. 

Perhaps I should have mentioned this first, as it is rather a dominating trait in my little Ash-n-Dash these days: She is INDEPENDENT, really.  Zeke went through a little phase of wanting to do things himself, but with Ashlynn, whoa.  She long ago insisted on choosing her own clothes every day, and now she put her foot down and will not allow anyone else to put them on her either.  This means that her pants are frequently on backwards, jammies are often inside out, and the coordination of her attire is simply eye-catching.  I can sometimes convince her to correct some things but more often than not, it just isn't worth the battle.  Besides, with a mom's eyes, my mismatched, inside out, head trying to pop out a sleeve lady is positively the cutest little thing.

Her independence doesn't stop at clothing. She must open her own doors, carry her own snacks, climb into high places and a hundred other tasks by herself.  Even when she deems to ask for help, she usually rescinds the request as soon as we actually start helping her. She has to put on her own seatbelt every single time we get in the car.  And she can.  It takes a few more minutes than I often wish to wait, but she buckles that pesky little buckle every time like a pro, and I just pull the strap to tighten it.  (But I must never let my hand come near the car seat too soon, or there will be words).  She remains my little fireball and with her independence has come an increase of the unattractive scream "ASHIN DO IT" which at a prompting from me quickly is revised into a lovely simpering "Ashin do it, please."  We are working on that initial response...

Final last tid-bit, for the sake of remembering when I do a birthday page in our family album, Ashlynn requested very little for her birthday this year.  Her requests were "Snacks, a big cookie, and ban-bans (band-aids)" 

PS---Post about Zeke to follow, hopefully tomorrow.  If it doesn't, get on my case.

An Long Expected Blogging

You probably thought I would never post again.  Me too.  Somehow other things always happen instead.  But I do want to keep posting the little things my kids do because that is what I know I will really regret once I can't remember them anymore.  So here's the updates:

ASHLYNN

• LOVES FOOD!  The first thing out of her mouth when I come to get her out of bed in the morning is almost always "I hungy."  Said phrase is also repeated about twenty times each day, usually followed by "want snacky"
• She also loves Cosmo the BYU Cougar.  Trustin took the kids up to a BYU basketball game last month and when he told the kids Ashlynn immediately piped "Wan see Cosmo!"  And her favorite, favorite shirt is her cosmo shirt.  It is pretty much the only item of clothing I can suggest and know she won't fight me on it.
• Which leads into the fact that this lady is is quite insistent on picking her own clothes.  I hold her up in the closet and she rejects every single shirt approximately three times before finally picking one.  
• She loves her baby doll and her Spidey stuffed animal (Spiderman) and has turned into such a cute little mini mama.  She gives her baby big slobbery kisses and then holds her up and says "Baby soggy!" and wipes her off with a bib.
• She has the worlds most adorable way of shouting "I lo' you!" whenever Trustin or I are leaving.
• She has taken to running very fast.  Well. Her legs move extremely fast, but not so much forward.  Her legs just go wild in every direction and her whole body swings all over.  This typically ends in a crash.
• She loves to look for "airpane-copters"
• Her favorite song is "I am a Child of God," proof that nursery has grown in popularity for her, since I never used to sing that one but now am required to sing it every nap and bedtime ("Sing "of God"

yum

We finally said good-bye to the binkie.  It was getting out of hand...

Here she is riding a horse...dustbroom

Sideways, crazy hair babe

Cutesy-bootsie!

ZEKE

• Zeke is still holding on to his love of all things superhero related.  He invents several new superheroes every day.  A few of my favorites are:
• Black Man (Perhaps not so politically correct...) -- He can turn anything black
• Worm Man -- This one was invented while helping me in the garden.  Worm Man can make worms, He is tall and has super long hair.
• Bowl Man-- He makes bowls
• Snow Man -- He makes snow on the ground, and snowballs, and ice, and he can turn invisible, and he can fly, and he can shoot lasers, and he can... (this one just kept getting better and better)
• With the superhero craze has come a love of wrestling and fake fighting.  Well, pretty fake.
• Also with the superhero craze there is one word he uses a lot more than your average three year old.  IMPOSTER.  Imposters frequent our games, A LOT.
• Our Family Home Evenings also often must reference superheroes.  Zeke and Ash always request the same two songs.  First we sing the superhero song Zeke made up (the Na na na na na na na na na Batman song, but we add any other superheros for additional verses, and we often add Yoda and Darth Vadar as well).  Then we sing Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam and the kids love it when we throw them into the air everytime we say "beam"
• Zeke wrote and gave his first talk in Primary two weeks ago.  He did so well.  I was so impressed.    He of course wanted to talk about superheroes so he told everybody that the heroes in books and movies aren't real but Jesus is real and the greatest superhero. Then he really wanted to tell his class that Moses turned his staff into a snake.  So we added that in as well.  
• While he is still disappointed that he doesn't get snacks every week in primary, he really loves his primary teacher and talks about her and the things he learns all the time.  He was teaching Ashlynn how to do something and Trustin said "good job teaching her" and Zeke declared "Hey, I just reminded myself of my teacher, because she teaches me!"
• 
  

Always silly

Wrestling with Dad

Overall we are doing fabulously.  I finished my classes back in November but officially wore my cap and gown last weekend and it feels good.  We are loving our house and our neighborhood.  Our other big news (that most of you already know) is that we are training to become foster parents.  We are excited for more adventures.

Our neighbors have chickens.  So the kids are at the fence every day.  Ash says "want chickens hi" and that means she wants to go say 'hi' to the chickens

Indoor "ice-skating"

The Mysterious Voice

One day last week Zeke was watching The Superhero Squad Show while I was working on some things.  The next day at lunch, quite out of the blue, his eyes lit up with revelation. "I figured out who that voice was on my superhero show!  It was Jesus!  At first I thought it was the bad vampire, but his lips weren't moving, so it must have been Jesus!"

Binkies, Blankies, Heroes and a Romantic

Eighteen months has come and gone (not to mention a few other major events in our life) so it is past time for a blog post.

Ashlynn is officially growing up fast.  Here is a bit about her:

• She is a TALKER!  She is a little parrot and will repeat pretty much anything we say, but she has also within just the last month taken off on her own vocabulary.    My favorite word is "yep" or "dep"which she says a lot, and always in the same matter of fact tone.  
• Her most common phrase is "binkie go, binkie go?" She is quite attached to her binkie. Poor little gal doesn't realize that the only reason she still has a binkie is because we didn't feel like imposing that transition on Trustin's parents, and then we didn't want to take her binkie away right after moving into a new house, so suddenly her binkie days are numbered. (Maybe I should have said poor little parents for that one).
• She has also become unfortunately attached to her blankie as well. She has always liked soft blankies, but since the day we moved into our new house, she has needed her blankie. I am wishing we'd bought her a darker colored blanket, since light pink seems to turn to gray on a daily basis and it is rather difficult to sneak it into the washer.
• She loves to read more now and always brings us books and says "read peaz."  Books have confused her on a few things.  Because of a book about colors she thinks all butterflies are called "blue" and courtesy of the book Pigeon Wants a Puppy she thinks that pigeons are puppies (this is her favorite book)
• She loves her daddy.  When Trustin gets home from work she sprints at him with her arms out wide and her mouth in a huge grin which morphs into her open mouthed kiss face. Melts her daddy every time.
• She is still a good eater, and while she loves candy and fruit snacks she also has some rather unusual tastes.  She really likes grapefruit and even stranger she is a fan of green smoothies (basically spinich water, yum).  She also likes to clear the table and make sure nobody wastes any food, so as soon as she's done eating she climbs up and eats the food off everybody else's plates.
• She likes nursery rather well.  That is, she tolerates it so long as the nursery leader never sets her down.  This week I walked her down the hall and when we got to the door and she realized where we were he feet planted in the ground briefly, then without any word from me, she dropped my hand and stomped into the room, bawling.  I suppose she has resigned herself.
• Lastly, our darlin' is a cuddle bug.  Any time of day, regardless of how tired she is, she loves to lay her head in our laps and cuddle.  We don't mind a bit.

Zeke is what he ever was: a very super kid.  His love of all things super hero related seemed to be ebbing for a moment, and then Christmas happened and with it Avengers Legos and a set of 8 new superhero action figures.  The superheros have come back into focus, full force.  

Last week Zeke wrote and illustrated his very first book.  Naturally the topic was superheroes.  I would love to take a picture of every page and post it here, but instead I will share my favorite part.  He invented a new superhero.  I asked him who the picture was and he said it was a new superhero.  He thought for a moment and then said, "well, he's really poofy, so Poof Man!"  Thus was the birth of Poof Man.  When it came time to compose the words for the book Zeke instructed us to write about his super power: "Poof Man can turn into any poofy bug!" 

Zeke has also turned into a bit of a romantic lately.  While talking to his aunt about Beauty and the Beast she questioned his favorite part of the movie.  He responded proudly, "My favorite part is when they fall in love!"  Then yesterday we were driving in the car and he said, quite out of the blue, "I don't know who I will marry, to be the mommy." He then proceeded to go on and tell all about how he hasn't met her yet.  I responded "Well, I'm sure she will be very wonderful."  Zeke agreed and added "And she will be very beautiful!"  

Along similar lines, Zeke has developed his dreams for his future.  For a long time he was determined that when he grows up he wants to be a daddy.  Then one day he changed his mind and decided that he wants to own a candy store.  Oh the delight when he learned he can be both!