so old

We went camping last night.

As we were sitting around the fire, I told stories from when I was younger. My kids love these. I started to tell them about when I was really young, we had a station wagon.

"Do you know what a station wagon is?" I asked.

"Yup, we do," piped my daughter definitively, "it's what the pioneers crossed the plains on!"

Ummm... not quite.

This reminds me of an experience I had a couple weeks ago. My husband and I were talking to his younger cousin and his beautiful fiance. They were telling us how they met, how their engagement has been, etc, and we were sharing our story with them. Then we both commented that how as you get older, age doesn't really matter as much as it does when you are young.

I was about to say, "Yeah, just like you and us are not that different..." I kid you not, that was on the tip of my tongue, when his fiance said, "Yeah just like you and Sid and Steph,"... their parents. I could hardly stop laughing.

I guess am no longer associated with the younger crowd. Unless I am visiting a nursing home. What? When did this happen? Apparently years ago, I probably just didn't notice it because I was changing somebody's diaper.

Here's the clincher... I am actually closer in age to his parents than to the engaged couple. How's that? Ahh... but it's a good age! And I certainly wouldn't change it.

A few pictures from our Portland trip

we hiked to the very top of these falls! The kids were so great hiking on this trip!



So we had tons of fun in Portland (and went to the beach obviously). Jannene and Kevin were so fun to stay with and it turned out to be a fantastic family vacation (although, Rob would probably point out that it was a family trip. A "vacation" involves just sitting and relaxing, not nearly so much hiking and traveling around.

Another wild child?

"While your 7-month-old has already accomplished a great deal by this time, it's almost as if the first six months of his life have been a training period for active duty."
That's what my book says.

Check.

This week my baby has changed. Gone is this sedate, easy-going baby. He is still a happy camper, but he is now an explorer. If anything is close-to-within reach, it will be his. I put him down on the floor and in about 3 seconds, I turn to find him sucking on a cord. He broke a vase yesterday because I walked by it, and he grabbed the flowers before I could even think. Last week he would gag eating cherrios, this week, he is only interested in solids. Bottle feeding takes FOREVER, as he is not very interested in just sitting and sucking. Even as I was feeding him today, and he was so tired that he was falling asleep, his hand was still out trying to grab my face, or anything else around. He is even starting to use the chewed-up sippy cups passed down from older siblings.

He has become squirrelly. And while he is not crawling yet (thank goodness!), he is starting to get around. As he is constantly bouncing (people remark about that constantly) or moving. I am beginning to think that while he may have started out calm, this child is really not so different than my other two.
:)

AMAZING

I am really loving the law change here in Utah about fireworks. As we were driving home from a family BBQ, it was so beautiful to see so many big aerial fireworks going off across the valley. Beautiful!

Parenting, and figuring out my own tune

I just read Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mom and it has got me thinking. I have worried about my kids finding good friends a lot. But why? (I think it may be because I moved a lot growing up, and that was always a worry for me when I moved). They will make friends, regardless, and if I teach them skills like self-discipline and manners at home, they should seek out kids with the same types of skills. So maybe I need to think less about play dates and more about academic skills.

I have always known my kids were smart kids. Not brilliant, child prodigy's (thank goodness... I can barely spell it let alone handle one). But smart enough to get by... But reading that book has gotten me to re-evaluate my parenting. Thinking about pushing harder, being the best. Although I'm not even close to being as driven as the author is (her daughter played in Carnegie Hall as a 13-year old), I can do much more for my kids, pushing their talents more and investing more in their education. Kids gain self-confidence when they do something well, especially something hard, not when someone coddles them and lets them know constantly how awesome they are for doing something that comes easy.

However, at the same time, I don't want to teach my kids self-discipline by screaming and yelling at them constantly (like the book). And I do believe in the importance of taking time for imaginative play.

In my quest to find a happy medium for me, I kicked it up a notch last week. The kids did a lot more chores. I printed out math pages and we practiced reading. And it went really well. My house was a lot cleaner. Whenever they whined, I calmly gave them another chore, and by the end of the week, they were finishing chores without me harping on them to finish. We still played and had a lot of fun, but I don't think we missed anything. Well, to be fair, we had a friend stay over half the week while her parents were out of town, so even doing chores was like having a play date. But I think I need to trust that my kids will find good friends if I just focus on my own modeling and spend more time with them prepping them academically and ethically.