Lila Help

I let Lila help me change our monthly calendar. She is the one who noticed that I went almost the whole month without getting it changed. So she went to work. She asked me how to spell November, and then drew an appropriate picture for the month. Then I helped her figure out how to write all the numbers. She struggles a lot with writing 2's, but I think she did a great job. And she even decorated a square at the bottom. She called it her Lila square. I pointed out that she wrote her name backwards. She was surprised. I find it funny that she writes both forward and backwards and it seems normal to her. Isn't she the best?

First birthday

Unfortunately, nick has been a little grumpy today. I want to just hold and squeeze and love on my brithday boy. He is sure an amazing little baby and I love him so so much! Here are some things about my son on his first birthday:

Quickly learning to turn up his nose at baby food. Still just a crawler, but he's super fast. Knows what he wants. Can play by himself and be happy. Does a sort of hum often when he's crawling around. Makes noises through his nose. I think his first word is mama, but i need to hear it a few more times to be sure. Has red knees and the tops of his feet are constantly black. Loves having a string that keeps his binky with him always. Likes to throw things. Loves bananas, pasta, and meat. Doesn't like to drink out if any sort of container. This worries mommy who is trying to wean. Loves bathtubs and pools but doesn't like splash pads or the ocean. Got daddy's skin- tans instead of burns. Wants to be involved in things going on around him.  Good sleeper most of the time. Already obsessed with the iPad, even though he doesn't actually do anything on it. Has kept his vibrant blue eyes. Completely obsessed with mommy. Doesn't like his car seat. Started objecting to diaper changes. screams when we change his clothes. Frequently tries to pick or scratch off the mole on mom's collar bone. Smiles and claps when anyone says "yay!" Likes giving high fives. Doesn't sit and cuddle but will rest his head on your shoulder for a moment and it's so sweet. Still just has two teeth. Screams like a banshee. Lets us know if he has run out of food by said scream. 

4 1/2

Lila turned 4 1/2 years old yesterday. Here are some things about her:

Takes ballet. Loves preschool. Loves to sing and makes up her own songs. Still wears a pull up to bed. Zones out when watching shows. Constantly asks to watch shows. Watches most of the Disney channel shows. Favorites include Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Henry Hugglemonster, Miles from Tomorrowland, and Sophia the first. Explains things very thoroughly. Loves her Sunbeam class. Best friends include Kayla, Cammy, and her cousins. Still gets shy around people, but brave in trying new things. Likes to swim. Like to swing. Just figured out how to get herself higher on the swing by pumping her legs. Adores her grandmas. Has a sweet tooth. Says her nightly prayers by herself. Loves being a big sister. Loves being outside. Favorite foods include cheesy pasta, dad's pasta, chicken tikka masala, and sloppy joes. Sings the primary songs like a champ. Helps the family remember family home evening and family scripture study and prayers. Is an absolute angel in our home. 

Eleven Months

The countdown begins until the big oh-one. Another year flies by. This one has been amazing with this little lad in it. Here are some things about him:

loves climbing stairs. has experimented with going back down but hasn't yet been successful. loves getting in to mischief. loves to see his big sister, hates being touched by her in any way. picky about his food. is a screamer. adores his mommy. loves having a leash for his binky so it's always around. is at a stage that makes it impossible for mommy to get anything done. loves chewing on rubbery things. pushes the tray off his high chair. good sleeper. wakes up between 6:00 and 7:00. hates it when mom leaves the room. still has two teeth. has the cutest giggle. gives mommy the sweetest hug when she gets him in the morning. loves to pinch. absolutely loves baths. hates getting dressed. likes to giggle and crawl away as one of his parents chases him. plays catch with daddy.

In Case I Don't Get To It

We had a great family vacation to Aspen Grove last week. It is one of those things I want to blog about but it was so fun and there is so much to tell that I will probably never actually undertake such a big task. So, in case I don't get to it, you can at least have this little tidbit. This is what happened when we were walking back to our cabin after dinner for the last time. She was crushed that we had to go home.

Ten Months

Sorry, I wrote this post yesterday and forgot to publish it. Here it is!

I am a day late with this post but it doesn't mean I am not insanely in love with my little boy. Here are some things about him:

absolutely loves water. will crawl to the bathroom from anywhere in the house if he knows Lila is in the tub. loves going up stairs. eats mostly baby food, but loves when he gets bites from Mama's plate. giggles a lot. not very fond of being in the basement. loves his sister, but doesn't love being squished by her. has adorable ears. has beautiful blue eyes. is following a perfect growth curve. has light, thin hair but it's actually kind of long. crawling everywhere. has almost completely given up sliding around on his tummy. did go through a transition period of some crawling, some sliding. great climber. likes riding in the stroller or the bike trailer. hates his carseat again. obsessed with mommy. likes to headbutt the floor when he's mad. likes to backwards headbutt his high chair when he is ready to get out. grabs mom's hair and headbutts her in the forehead to show he loves her. headbutts mom's chest when he's sad. is at the stage where we constantly chase him around and have pillows and blockades all over the house. (i.e. is constantly getting in to trouble). got a little confused when dad shaved his beard again. wakes up to eat between 5:00 and 6:30 most mornings. only sometimes goes back to bed. If dad is in bed when Nick finishes eating and he doesn't want to go back to bed, he immediately giggles and tries to wake up daddy. makes cute sounds. tries to copy things we do. for instance, grabs his baby sponge comb thing and tries to comb his hair after mommy does it. loves to play and roughhouse. growing so fast and becoming such a fun little man.

Here he is loving his bath while I type this post

This is how I usually have to shower. We do it in the early morning when Lila is still sleeping.

Lila Finishes Her First Year of Preschool

Lila has really loved preschool this year. She has done great and really started to learn a lot! Her teacher, Miss Pamela has been wonderful. We have felt safe sending Lila to her home, the price was very reasonable, Lila came home with great art projects, and she loved every minute! We thought it was great enough to keep Lila going in the summer.

We enjoyed a fun little ceremony for finishing up preschool. Lila did great! Only one kid in her class spent the entire time on his daddy's lap, refusing to participate. I had worried that Lila would be that kid, but instead she did amazing!

The kids did some of their fun finger plays and songs for us.

Lila picked the cat out of the bag! Haha. Then we all got to sing Old MacDonald had a cat.

Every so often, one of the kids got to do a talent. Unfortunately, Lila didn't enjoy the talent of one of her friends.

When it was her turn, she stood up and got going immediately. I bet most people had no clue she was even doing her talent. You might not even catch it at first.

I am not 100% sure, but I think I know why she chose this talent. Way back around her 4th birthday, we took her in to get a well-child check like good parents do. We did a little child development questionnaire before her visit. It asked questions like whether or not she can speak in complete sentences, if she socializes with other kids, and whether or not she can stand on one foot. Well, she passed virtually every question. Except that she couldn't stand on one foot. She has been practicing ever since. We talked about the talent show a good month before it took place. The first thing she wanted to do was dance. But the next time I asked, she said she wanted to stand on one foot. For the rest of the month, she didn't change her mind. And she totally could have done a great job even without Miss Pamela's help!

At the end, Miss Pamela introduced each kid by showing off a book they made about themselves. It was so fun to hear all the cute things Lila said about herself. It was all totally spot on.

Our attempt at a family picture

I don't know how we managed to not get any picture with the grandparents, but they came. It was wonderful. Grandma Faber took time out to come, Grandma Itri happened to be in town and made it, and Grandma Lila and Grandpa Great were feeling good enough to make the trip. She was well loved! We are so proud of you, Lila!

Toe Day!

One of my favorite days of the year is when I get my toenails expertly painted courtesy of my work! I also get cookies and soda, and a bag full of goodies. For my toes, I can pick any design I want. Any pattern or picture I can find, I can request it. And now that Lila is a little older, she gets to come too! She came last year and was really scared. But this time she was champion! Sorry the first picture is a little blurry and glarey.

Lila Ballerina

If you ask Lila what she wants to be when she grows up, she says "I wanna be a ballerina!" with excitement. She is taking a Saturday morning ballet class right now from a wonderful sister in my ward who is offering the classes for free. In one of the classes, Miss Angela wanted to teach the importance for the kids not to go all the way up on their toes because it would hurt their feet. She showed them that they would have to have special shoes before they could do that, and in the meantime, they should use "half toe" to dance on. A few days later Lila found my pointe shoes and tied them around her feet.  It was adorable. But she got in trouble for it because she is too little to be on pointe and my shoes are expensive! But I do hope one day she gets to that point. I will nourish her little ballerina dream!

Unfortunately, she gets stage fright. Here is a little bit of her dance moves, but once I turned on the camera she wasn't as zealous as she had been before. She is still adorable though.

Sleepy Heads

Does anyone else think babies and kids do some of their best work in the cute department while asleep?

Lila and Elsa

Lila likes to eat Eggo waffles almost every morning for breakfast. But a few days a week she will settle for cereal. She almost exclusively uses her Elsa spoon that Shelly and Matt gave to her for her birthday. Sometimes she even has her Elsa jammies on too. She is the best.

Sunday Afternoon Picnic

Once when we were eating hot dogs for lunch, I turned it into a picnic for me and Lila. Now every time we eat hot dogs she thinks we automatically have to have a picnic. So we ate lunch outside today. Nick enjoyed some outdoor charm as well.

Sharing Time

I don't know why, but I really enjoyed my sharing time lessons this month and thought I would share a bit of what we did with you. It is probably quite boring for all of you adults to read it. So, please feel free to skip this post and focus on the ones about my family. But in case you don't have anything better to do, here it is!

Our scripture this month was the fourth Article of Faith. It goes like this:

"We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."

In fact, the song of the month happened to have lyrics that match that verse exactly! (Don't worry, it wasn't a coincidence. We did that on purpose). So, can you guess what we learned about each week? Well, here is a brief overview.

Faith

First, I introduced the month with representations of each step on the path to Christ that is laid out in the Fourth Article of Faith. Then we took away steps 2-4 and focused on step #1.

We talked about how a seed is like Faith. The focus was on how to make our seed grow. The kids easily understood that a seed needs sunlight ant water to grow. Our seed of faith is planted in our hearts and needs food to grow as well. The food that faith needs in order to grow is obedience. We talked about how when we obey Christ's commandments, our faith in him gets stronger. If we don't feed our faith by making bad choices, our faith plant starts to die. 

You may not be able to see in this picture, but here are some really sad looking plants in the cup on the left. Which plant would you rather your faith looks like? We also talked a little about how our Faith needs to be in Jesus Christ, not something else. And, the best way to be obedient now is for them to be obedient to their parents.

Repentance

Week two started with a brief review of week one. This time we only had the seed packet to remind us about faith. Then we talked about repentance. 

We had a bowl of water that represented us as perfect babies who had never made a mistake. Then, as we grow, we make mistakes. The sin makes us dirty. (pour pepper into the water). We demonstrated that we cannot get the pepper out by ourselves, even if we try. But there are steps we can take to be clean again!

In the back of the room, I had a few tape strips laid out a few feet apart. At one end we had a picture of Jesus Christ with a small bottle of soap. I explained that whenever we sin, Jesus Christ is waiting for us to repent, we just need to take the steps to get to Him. He is always offering to cleanse us, but we need to do the proper work to get to Him. So we had one kid stand on the other side of the room and made up some example of what they might have done that needs to be repented of. Then we took them through each step. First, the realized they did something wrong. Step up to the first tape line. Then, they had to apologize. Step to the second line. Next they had to try and make things right. Move up one more line. Finally, they had to never make that mistake again! (or at least genuinely try not to). Then, they had access to Christ's atonement "soap."

Even though it isn't a perfect depiction, you get the idea. The soap causes all the pepper to scatter and fall to the bottom. When we did it in primary, I didn't accidentally put so much pepper in the bowl. The effect was a little better. My strategy was to let the kids see it, then put the bowl away really quickly before they noticed the pepper wasn't actually gone.

Baptism

Of course, we started again with a brief overview of Faith- it is like a seed and grows with obedience. We kept the soap to represent repentance. When we repent, Jesus Christ can make us clean again. This day, we talked about baptism. Because the Article of Faith actually talks about immersion, I had a little doll and "baptismal font" to show that we go all the way in the water. But that wasn't the main focus of baptism for the day, so we moved on quickly.

We focused on making promises. In senior primary we even talked about the word covenant.  (Trust me, the junior primary in our ward wouldn't have gotten anything out of that discussion...) First I had two kids come up to the front and made up some sort of promise they might make to each other such as "Stephanie promises to come to McKenzie's birthday party, and McKenzie promise to let Stephanie have a cupcake at the party." Then the two linked arms. We focused on this link as the main reminder that a promise was made. 

We had a picture of a child on the board, and a picture of the savior. I had some papers in the box that had some of the things that get promised when we are baptized. The kids got to take out a paper and try to guess which promises were made by us, and which ones were made by Christ. 

We promise: To take upon us the name of Christ, to keep His commandments, and Always remember Him.

He promises: we can have His Spirit to be with us, and that we can return to live with Him.

Once we had them all on the board, I circled the things we promise, then circled the things Christ promises so the circles became linked. Then we did a quick overview with our toys. I held up the girl and two strips of paper. This is what we are like before we are baptized. We might do things, and Christ might do things, but they are separate. 

 Then, the girl goes all the way into the water, and comes out linked to Christ through the promises that were made.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Sorry, not as many fun pictures for this last one. We spent the first few minutes reviewing again. By now, the kids were excited to come open the previous boxes and show off their knowledge of what was inside. I was impressed that the kids remembered that the liked paper represented a promise. Both junior and senior primary had at least one kid that could tell me what it represented before I said anything. Then we said the whole fourth article of faith together. In talking about "the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost," we focused on the laying on of hands part. I had invited a member of our ward who holds the Melchizidek Priesthood to come spend some time with us. I pointed out that the Article of Faith doesn't just say "the Holy Ghost", or even "The Gift of the Holy Ghost." The part about laying on of hands is very important.

I had written out some questions and placed them in the box. We all recited the Fourth Article of Faith together, then a kid would pick out and ask a question that my visitor would answer for them. Then we would recite again. (Repetition, repetition, repetition!) In senior primary we sat in a circle and they passed around the box. Whoever was holding it when we finished reciting would get to ask the next question. 

Our questions: What priesthood do you hold? How did you receive the priesthood? How do you confirm someone a member of the Church? What does “laying on of hands” mean? What does it mean to “receive the Holy Ghost”? How can the Holy Ghost help me?

Then, our tower was complete. The gift of the Holy Ghost was represented by the ribbon on the box making it look like a present.

In case you were wondering, I try my best to follow the outline provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints specifically for these lessons. I also got a few ideas from the internet. Pretty much the only thing that was my own was to have the boxes and items that represented each thing with a review each week. Also, I don't know what I will do when I don't live near my mom anymore, since I used a ton of her stuff. Her boxes, her wrapping paper, and her pink bathtub. :) I love you mom!