Bird Lady

We were driving home from California and were greeted in Las Vegas by the usual assortment of billboards, some naughty, some nice.

At one point, Ben was watching the signs pass by and said, "What's that?"

So I chose the least offensive billboard in the cluster and said, "Oh, that's a little girl with balloons."

"No, Mommy, not that one." Ben said with his face all screwed up in thought, "Yucky one."

"Balloons aren't yucky," I insisted.

"No. That lady holding a bird." He said, "So yucky."

Of course, he was referring to a Bally's billboard, in which a woman is bedecked in feather, jewels, and not much else.

"You're right Ben, it is yucky."

Good times as children notice everything. At least he thought it was yucky.

Cremation

This weekend we're going to a memorial service for Ryan's Grandma Lillian, who passed away in January. We were trying to prep Todd for the event tonight and were explaining the process of cremation. Mostly, we didn't want him to come up with any crazy comments at the actual ceremony.

So I told him that some people choose to have their bodies cremated, which means they burn their body and then put it in an urn, or a jar. We happened to be finishing dinner, so I said, "It's probably about the size of this pitcher."

Throughout this entire conversation, he has a classic Todd look on his face, the "you've-got-to-be-kidding-me look." So when I finally finish my explanation, he looks at the pitcher, looks at me, and says, "So, like, her foot's in there?" I guess he had been trying to figure out what body part would fit in a juice pitcher if the rest was burned, and the foot seemed the most likely.

So we re-explained that it's just the ashes that they put in the urn, not an actual body part. Interesting things to explain to your children. I believe he's still a bit mystified. But at least we had the conversation at home, not at the funeral.

The Up Side of Dining Out

We ended up on the west side of town tonight around dinner time so we decided to go out for a bite to eat (a real rarity for our family, because as Todd says, "You're a cheap mom.") Anyway, we went to Pei Wei (a diner version of PF Changs), or "Chocksticks," as Ben was calling it.

We had a wonderful time.

I just have to type that again. We had a wonderful time.

I'm not even kidding. It did look a bit iffy there for a few seconds when the server handed us a large cup with the kid's meals, explaining they were out of the kid's cups. I handed it to Benny and he looked positively offended, "No. Tiny cup," he insisted. But after I assured him he got a big cup entirely to himself, he was assuaged.

So, after that roadblock, it was smooth as buttah. The boys sat down and stayed seated the entire time. Granted, they did sword fight with their chopsticks occasionally, but they are boys. They ate the dinner that was put in front of them without a single word of complaint (Cripsy Honey Chicken and Teriyaki Chicken). They used their chopsticks as spears for their chicken and thoroughly enjoyed each bite. The biggest excitement came from seeing the grill flame up periodically in the kitchen.

No one needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the meal. There was not a single spill. And, to top it off, as Todd put it, "we're lucky, Mom."

"Why's that?"

"Because we get to leave all these plates and bowls and cups right here."

A bit confused I said, "So why does that make us lucky?"

He looked at me with his I-guess-we-need-to-be-patient-with-mom-because-she's-so-slow look and said, "We don't have to do the dishes."

What a night.

The Rules of FHE

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. Afterward, we went to sit in the living room so they could share a message. Benny jumped up and said, "Yeah, scipchew (scripture) night!" and he ran and got our family home evening blanket (we have an FHE blanket that we always sit on for family night).

We got it all set up and then Elder Hamilton started giving the message. Benny stood in the middle of the blanket with his little fists clenched, face brilliant red, screaming, "NO." Then he proceeded to fall down and cry. Elder Hamilton was a bit concerned.

I said, "Benny, what's wrong?"

"Song," he sobbed.

I guess we had started family home evening off all wrong. We always start with a song. So I said, "OK, you pick the song."

"Snowman," he sobbed.

So we all started to sing, but got another lashing out when we weren't standing up, "UP," he screamed.

So we finally got going. Half way through he broke down crying, "I can't even stand up." And he fell over in tears. Such a sad beginning to family night.

Butterfly

We were having our morning devotional time during breakfast this morning and I had just finished reading a story from the Friend. Inside the front cover of this month's Friend magazine is the picture of Christ called The Second Coming (the one where He has on the white robe with the red sash and his arms are held open--but this version is just Christ, not the angels on the sides).

Anyway, I showed it to Ben and said, "Who's this?"

He looked up from his cereal, glanced at the picture and said, "Ummmm. . .Butterfly Jesus." And then he resumed eating.

If you look at the picture, it isn't a half bad description.

More love notes

Todd and I usually have an interesting conversation at least once a day. Tonight's was well worth sharing.

"Mom, Amber keeps writing notes that say I Love Todd."

I said, "Well, just ignore it."

He insisted, "I can't. She keeps writing them and then giving them to Sedrick. He laughs and gives them to me."

I calmly replied, "Well, you're a nice, cute, fun, kid, so girls are always going to like you. You'd better get used to it. But mostly you can just ignore it."

"Yeah," he contemplated, "If she goes to BYU, because I'm going to BYU, she'll probably still write notes and want to marry me."

"Probably." I said with a smile. So humble, he is.

Sock Puppets and Self Control

Ben still naps about 90% of the time, a huge blessing in my life. Twice last week when he woke up, I went in to get him and found him in his crib with his socks on his hands instead of his feet. The last time he smiled and looked at me, then moved his hand like a puppet and said, "Hi, Mom." He is seriously a cute kid.

Tonight we were working together as a family on our "reading challenge" gameboard. Some friends of ours had a reading challenge in their family and Todd loved the idea, so he's decided we need to have one, too. Todd is in charge and he lead our family home evening last week as we decided on the rules and stipulations. So we finally got some supplies he said we needed and started working on the board. Sunday nights are notoriously difficult at our house, but we were all trying really hard to be nice. He grabbed Ben's hand and started to say something mean. I looked at him with the mommy face and said (in the mommy voice), "Todd."
To which he responded with a large intake of breath and then, "I know. It's late. pause. . . I'm been a long day. . pause. . . I'm getting tired and a little grouchy." Another deep breath. And then he calmly moved on. It was a funny moment. I guess he's working on his self control.