September Chronicles
We were so happy Todd and Tana (and Aunt Nini and cousin Maya) came to visit us over Labor Day. They graciously came a day early so Aaron and I could get away on an overnight adventure.
And that is where the month full of defeated plans began...
Let me summarize in a series of short, factual, phrases and you can put together the story.
Weekend #1: Hiking the Hopi Salt Trail to the Little Colorado River
Late start. Middle of nowhere. Flat tire. 30+miles on dirt roads to go. HOT. "more of a route than a trail" as the pamphlet from the information center put it. Boulder hop for two hours...with a pack...exhausted...HOT...realize we lost the 'route'. Aaron stumbles and falls in a cactus. Losing morale. Fight hysteria. Pick our way down YET ANOTHER scree slope. Just want to sit in the cool river. Quit having conversation 2 hrs. ago. Hiking 100ft. apart now. Both admit to moments of moans and weeping. 2600 vertical feet in 2 miles, one way. Jean cries the last hour. Not stopping because we are so close...it seems. Finally in the canyon bottom 6hrs later. Can't get to river through the d*@! tamarisk. No beach. More hiking to find sand bar. Tent set up, baby fed, finally sit in river. Lightning storm starts. Out of river. Move tent. Rain never falls. Muggy, sweltering heat all night. Up at 6am to beat the heat of the day. Covered in bug bites. SO SORE. Jean cries for the first hour. It pours rain for the first 3 hours. At least we found the correct 'route' out. (this would have saved us so much time and effort on the way in!) 2 rattlesnakes. Jean cries up the final steep ascent...but we're so close! We stop anyway because we can't breathe. Finally out and make it home on the spare tire.
On our way out the door Aaron's mom asked us why we couldn't just go to Sedona for a night like normal people. We replied, 'because we like this kind of thing better.' When we got home she asked how it was. Our reply, "we should have gone to Sedona."
Weekend #2: Wood Gathering Family Campout
Yearly fall tradition. Rent a U-Haul. Sharpen the chainsaw. Pack extra blankets and hot chocolate. Our first campout with Jean! We're out to get aspen this year, it burns cleaner than pine. Word of mouth instructions from the guys at work say 'just past the no-name town there's a big mud puddle, just past that is a pull-out, just past that is a dirt road...' amazingly we find it just as they say. Except the 1/2mile on the dirt road was a tight squeeze around and through trees. Teamwork, reverse, and heads hanging out the window get us through. Work gloves on everyone. Mom and kids start to set up tent. The plan is to load the trailer and Aaron will run a load back in to town that night and we'll wake up and do another load together in the morning. An unnatural pounding bass is vibrating through the forest. Some kind of Friday night party further on up the dirt road? We won't let that discourage us from our family bonding in nature. Aaron, please don't drop the trees so close to the kids. 10ft. IS a little too close, especially when they explode when they hit the ground. Kids work diligently to load sticks in the trailer. Gun shots!?!!!!! Close! Maybe we'll camp further out. It might be hard to maneuver back in here alone in the dark anyway. Stuff the unrolled tent in the car. Keep working on hauling logs to the trailer. Wow! We're almost done. Check on Jean in the car. What's that smell? Addie has diarrhea. Um......scramble to help clean up. Jean decides she's hungry. It's dark. Feeding Jean. Addie gets another urge! Aaron smashes his fingers. The kids are cold. Decide roughing it might not be the best idea tonight. Maneuver back through the trees with a full trailer now. Make it safely to the pavement and home. Drop kids in bed and watch a movie on the couch. The next day we get a stroke of luck. We decide aspen isn't all it's cracked up to be and go for the easy pine already felled and limbed in the slash piles around the forest. Aaron gets one easy load in the morning without ever having to turn on the chainsaw! We go back out for the second load of the day. The kids are cheerful and helpful. We're ahead of schedule. We're going to make our goal of 4 loads for the weekend! Have lunch and head out for the last load. The earlier trip went so well we are all along for the ride again. The sky looks a little ominous. Pull off at the exit and it is a torrential down-pour. Turn right back around and call it a day. We build a fire in the backyard on Monday night and Aaron sleeps on the trampoline with the kids for FHE to make up for our canceled campout.
Weekend #3: Biking...with no mishaps!
We hire a babysitter and make another attempt at getting out on an adventure together. We coax our good friends the Rockows to come with us. We spend all morning biking the Schultz Pass trail. Good times and no disasters.
2009 Report from the Coconino County Fair:Addie enters a knitted hat and melted bead zebra creation
Quinn enters her scrapbook and a picture collage of Jean
There were no ribbons on any entries. I immediately approached supervisors about this because in the Open Youth category all entries are judged on their own merit and receive a ribbon. My kids had too many hopes built up on getting a ribbon. (you can see the uncertainty and disappointment on Quinn's face in the picture). The sting of no ribbon is all too real for me from last year too. She pathetically claims 'they' didn't send enough ribbons and they ran out (even though we all turned in entry forms 3 weeks earlier and they knew exactly what would show up). The mother bear in me points this out and reminds her of the rules stated in the fair book. I ask her to take our name and address and mail them to my kids just as soon as she can. And then, aha!-just a minute- she returns from her car with bright green 'special merit' ribbons she just happened to dig up. how convenient. My kids are pacified.
I was somewhat consoled this year too after my second attempt at entering bread brought home a 3rd place and my chocolate scones a 2nd.
Even Aaron made progress: He came this year!
And one last public celebration for Quinn. Who taped her fingers, kept a chart and ate a sucker for breakfast 20 consecutive days to break her finger-sucking habit. She did it without one bad day and earned her very own Baby Alive Doll. Which she still can't quite decide if it really is alive or not. She looks at it with amazement and confusion before feeling overcome with her maternal affection and leans over to kiss it gently on the head for lack of knowing what else to think of it. Her name is Rosie, short for Rosabelle.
And did I mention Jean STARTED sucking her thumb?
(by way of entertaining explanation: this explains the picture with stickers all over Quinn and Jean's faces. Quinn informs me she is playing Princess School with Jean and runs to the other room. I'm busy and only half listen. I hear some crying. Then I hear Quinn yelling "Princesses don't cry!" over and over with more sternness. Then I walk in the room and find this.)
Special Edition: Soccer!
Addie played in The Sunflower Girls
Quinn played for The Blue Fairies
Aaron and I decided our family policy on playing team sports in the future is that you can only join if you'd still want to play if there were no half-time and after-game snacks.
August Chronicles
First off: Addie started First Grade! School started too early in the year for us. We didn't quite have our summer vacation out of us enough to feel really excited. I'll miss her help from the summer including: organizing any drawer or closet I point her to, putting Enoch down for naps, and thinking up creative games to play. But the coolest thing about her teacher is a classroom money system with a bank and a store! The least cool thing is being "boy trapped" at her desk. Max on one side, who I saw roll his eyes and shrug at Jack on the other side on the first day of school as Addie timidly tried to squeeze in to her desk. Her best friend Sarah is only 3 seats away on the same row, but alas, is boy trapped too.
We were so happy to have a visit from my mom, dad and McKay before they hopped on the river for a 6 day Grand Canyon trip. Quinn bawled her eyes out when she had to say goodbye the night before they left. We thought she was just overdramatic from being over tired, but she woke up the next morning and the first thing out of her mouth was a sobbing howl. She decided this kind of drama works for her and frequently enacts a similar scene in the morning when Addie leaves for school.
Quinn has had some deep thoughts on life lately. Here is a brief musing I overheard while driving them home one night:
"Imagine you are a grown up. What would it be like?
You would eat all your food,
you would not make messes and
you would be a really good rock climber.
I mean, we know how to rock climb, but if you were a grown up you would be really good!"
August was a month of bike adventures for Enoch. He discovered the freedom of the open road on his red tricycle. Unfortunately he took that freedom all the way down to the busy road at the end of the street. After some desperate holding on by his sisters, a rescue by the neighbor and some stern talking to, I think we've curbed the urge. Oh yea, and he lost his bike for a day. That was probably the big motivator. Now he just speeds right up to the gutter, throws down his feet (shoed or not, his toes are raw) and comes to a skidding stop BEFORE the road, leans all the way over the handle bars and waves at the passing traffic. I think it has given more than one driver heart failure. It takes an extra 5 minutes of negotiating to get him to ride in the stroller now. He wants to ride his tricycle everywhere. When we have ample time I let him ride it over to the school to pick her up. The high school kids waiting in their cars at the crosswalk always get a kick out of him scooting across the crosswalk with his red cowboy boots and shiny red trycicle with leather tassles hanging off the handle bars.
There is a sidewalk over by the school that has an incline which he scoots to the top of then tucks his feet under and coasts down. But he can truly coast in style. Picture head thrown back, eyes shut, feeling the wind in his face, throwing his weight side to side as he carves a giant 'S' down the slope.....and then he throws a little too much weight into it at just the wrong angle between his front and back tire and rolls clear over leaving him in a tearful heap on the cement.....but after a few sobs, a hug from mom and a distainful look at the bike who would do that to him, he's dragging it back up the sidewalk for another, more guarded, run.
McKay helped him spray paint the girls old 12" princess bike so it was at least blue and grey. It still doesn't look very manly, but I have no doubt he will compensate by riding it 'manly.' He hasn't quite converted over to it yet.
My month was filled with planning. I organized the curriculum for our preschool co-op. Which I love doing and I'll share the info with anyone interested in running a similar preschool. And I have also been having a blast organizing my Let's Play Music classes. I had no idea I would have so much fun with this. Here's my plug: this is the most fun and comprehensive music fundamentals class I have ever seen, let alone could imagine. I started teaching because I wanted it for my kids and there were no teachers in Flagstaff.
Check out the website: www.letsplaymusicsite.com
Aaron had a busy month with church assignments. He spent a weekend at a 5 stake youth conference that our stake hosted! Another weekend at a stake dance in Winslow, AZ. And another weekend on a deacon's quorum campout. Of course, he helped them with rock climbing and took them canyoneering. He felt like it was a success: 6 of the 11 boys cried and they are all bragging about the hike now. (little did Aaron know, retribution was coming. But that is a story for next month's Chronicles). The kids and I hiked in to meet them at the rock climbing Friday night. I had the pleasant realization that this was the first time I'd taken all of them hiking in a while and all 4 did great. They stayed out of the poison ivy and stayed cheerful up the steep trail. I didn't even have to break out any 'happy suckers.'
July Chronicles
Jean smiles a lot but tough to get to laugh. She likes to be with the kids, but not touched by them! She frequently has a 'deer-in-headlights' look that says something between "who sent me here?" and "are you people for real?!"
Enoch figured out how to climb out of the crib...trouble. Over the 4th Nate earned eternal bonus points with Enoch for inducting him into the Boys Sandbox Club. He loves chocolate popsicles(pronounced: clock-clet). His prayers sound like this:
Quinn really likes eating the beans and peas from the garden. She scored two goals at one of her soccer games. It changed her whole game when we told her it was okay to take the ball away from the other team. She's still mostly in it for the half-time and post-game snacks. Every Sunday morning she makes a card for her Sunbeam teacher: Cox (not Sister Cox, just Cox).
Addie lost her first tooth! Her dad actually couldn't take it anymore and yanked it out. She made a lot of progress swimming this month and can swim in the big pool without a life jacket and dive to the bottom for toys.
Aaron bought himself a mill after 10 years of dreaming. Now if he could only remember some of those things he planned to make, "if he only had a mill!"
June Chronicles
On the way home from kindergarten graduation Addie announced:
"now I know what two new things feel like. I know what it feels like to be in first grade and I know what it feels like to have summer break!"
When Enoch returns from his adventures outside he always announces, "I'm home, mom!"
He likes to play with 'hick-up trucks' and 'dinoswords.'
Recently we were watching a little friend his age. I said, "say 'hi' to our friend Enoch." He smiled a mischeivious smile and then shot her a chilling scowl. He turned around and walked away long enough for me to gasp in surprise, then called over his shoulder, "only kidding mom!"
While working on our latest installment to our long-term food supply Aaron observed, "this is so inefficient. They could have a factory and machines and do this faster, cheaper and make sure it was done correctly." I offered that it would cheat us of the opportunity to be obedient and work hard together. Who wouldn't want to skip the crooked labels, fighting to push the button on the sealer and floor covered in wheat and rice grains?
The last few photos are my hobby photos as of late. Cooking is my outlet.
May Chronicles
Addie's mother's day card:
Addie's riddle poem:
A is the oldest
Q has a good imagination
J is a baby
and E is trouble.
T is a genius
and A is smart,
but F is the BEST!!!!
What is F?
Other big events for Addie include incubating real live chicks at school, practicing and performing the Reading Restaurant, and discovering 3 cavities at the dentist, who knew kids needed to floss? Obviously not me. Her dentist happens to be her primary teacher also. After her first filling Aaron asked her if she still wanted to go back to church and luckily she said she did. She also turned 6 years old and had a wild and crazy Mad Scientist Party.
The highlight for Quinn this month was going to Wednesday morning Sporties for Shorties at the local Aquatics Center. She's getting especially good at rock climbing. And for the record: she can now brake on her bike!
I have to note the curious black eye Enoch was sporting in some of the photos from last month. That was from playing frisbee, with Quinn, on the trampoline; a favorite pastime of the two of them. This month he discovered soccer. He even takes the soccer ball with us in the car when we go most places. He has also decided to take his sense of fashion into his own hands. That always happens when my 2 year olds discover 'the Red Cowboy Boots.' A particularly choice outfit consisted of a Brazilian soccer shirt, cars and trucks long johns and red cowboy boots up to his knees. He wore it to the grocery store. He got a lot of comments.
Jean started smiling. Of course, it's cute. The kids really like to get her to smile at them. It's a good thing her outfits are so darn cute on her to make up for Enoch's fashion statements.
We have all been working on planting our new fancy garden boxes. Addie is excited about the carrots. Enoch likes to keep an eye on the fast growing peas. Quinn planted her own zinnias (incidentally, the same thing my mom planted in her 'garden' when she was Quinn's age). Aaron's pride is his lettuce and spinach box. I'm especially looking after the herbs and flowers. I really had to argue for one box being my flower box. Aaron wanted all produce harvest crops. I tried to warn him that you don't garden in Flagstaff, (at 7000 ft, with an average late frost date of June 15) for a bountiful harvest; it's more for the experience. I like to say, I garden to learn more about God. It's a good experience.
April Chronicles
Kiddo Anecdotes:
Addie's latest doctrinal ponderings have been about a possible favorite color for Jesus. Maybe it is all colors. (mom: good thought. He used all colors when he created the world. I bet he liked them all). What if he only used his favorite colors, and there are more that he didn't use. But we don't even know them because we only know the ones he used on Earth?!?! (you got me there. What if?)
I also overheard her informing her siblings at dinner that 'all things are chicken. Even people have chicken in them." Chicken is a generic term for meat at our house.
Quinn's word of the month is "awesomest." The real bone tickler in her use of the word is how fast she says it. Say it as quick and enthusiastic as you can. That's how she uses it. It has an almost 'Napoleon Dynamite casualness' feel. If only you could see her riding her 'sweet' bike she'd gladly show you her 'skills.' which she refers to as her 'awesomest tricks.' One thing about Quinn is she always spends more time explaining things than actually doing them. Her first awesomest bike trick is to stand up while she pedals. "even Addie can't do that trick." The second awesomest bike trick is to pedal with no hands (even if that means using your wrists to steer sometimes). The third is a sparatic back and forth steering to make a snake pattern.
All of this she can do, and yet, she hasn't quite figured out how to use the brakes. We're working on it though, and when she gets that down, it will most definitely be the fourth awesomest bike trick. She turned 4 this month and had the awesomest "Q-U Heart" party. She chose the theme, thanks Grandma for making it happen.
Enoch's choice words and phrases this month took on a disturbingly slang sound. They include "wuck a heck" (what the heck-which he distinctly got from Addie). "Dang it!" (Quinn's curse of choice) and "hoe-we moe-we" (holey moley-picked up from Nana Tana). All exclaimed with full emotion and impeccable timing. It's a bit frightening to hear, but it makes us laugh. He also has this way of saying "O-kay" with the perfect mix of disappointment and consent. Half a sigh and half an agreement.
Jean is a little dear, who is still figuring out the world. She can gulp more air than any baby I've ever cared for and it causes her a lot of grief. She does not like to nurse to sleep. She does not particularly like to be rocked to sleep. She does not like to sleep when she can hear the kids playing. And she does not like the pacifier. But amazingly she does sleep. We just have to make sure to burp her for long enough and lay her down in the perfect drowsy 'window' of opportunity. She spends the majority of her life in the double jogger and a car seat. She likes to be on the go (a person pretty much couldn't survive in this family without that trait).
Special "Addition": cousin
Special Edition: Baby Jean
Jean Hopkinson
March 29, 2009
8am
8lb 2oz, 19.5inches
More baby pictures than you ever wanted to see:
There's not much to report by way of 'birth story.' Mine are pretty run of the mill, which I'm grateful for. I go into labor at night and a week early: check. Water breaks, debate with Aaron about seriousness of going to the hospital, drug me up, push her out, no complications. Amazing. A miracle. A blessing.
I thought having a 4th baby was great though; I got hand-waved through so many things. The nurse came to triage me and when I told her this was my 4th she lowered her clipboard, took off her gloves and sighed, "oh, well you know you're in labor. Let's skip this and go straight to a room." When the next nurse checked my progress and I was complete she really hustled to call the dr. when I told her to be ready to deliver the baby because I won't wait to push just because she asked me to (she tried to tell me I would wait and I humored her by negotiating for 10 minutes). When the recovery nurse was giving me the shpeel about all the paperwork on my clipboard she kept pulling sheets out and throwing them in the garbage muttering, "you can skip that, and that, and you don't have to watch this movie...." When another nurse checked in the second morning she entered by saying, "I don't need to tell you anything, you could probably tell me a thing or two, you have more kids than me." And to top it all off, a dr. never even checked me after the delivery. They ended up calling and getting my release permission over the phone! All of this kept me chuckling through the whole experience, I mean, 4 kids isn't really that many! but I guess it is in the context of popular society.
Which reminds me of a funny little observation Aaron made over the last 9 months. He likes to relate the various reactions and comments he gets in reaction to each successive pregnancy:
1st child: "Oh! how exciting. Good for you. You'll love being parents."
2nd child: "Oh! that's great you want to have kids. How fun."
3rd child: "Oh! that will make a nice little family. You'll be busy!"
4th child: "How many kids are you going to have?!?!?!?!"
This is clearly the line where we crossed all social acceptability and the doting sugary coated encouragement completely dissolves into incredulity.
March Chronicles
In a desperate and, arguably, insane attempt at staying busy during these last few weeks of pregnancy, I signed Quinn up for swimming lessons.
But the class was full, so I looked into a Parent-Tot class at the same time and thought I might as well put Enoch in as well. I even checked in with the head life-guard to get some kind of official clearance for having 2 kids to one parent. (Although, one look at me made it clear I was practically at the 3:1 ratio in all reality.)
My simple $25 swim lesson idea turned into a $100 lesson by the time I got both enrolled and had to buy a swimming suit I could fit in!
It turned out to be a lifesaving activity to get us through some long weeks and the kids made some great progress. Enoch is fearless. I wish I could somehow depict it in words. Jumping in, face under the water, careening back for more as soon as he comes up, kind of crazy.
The other lifesaver this month was a visit from Todd, Tana and Aunt Nicole. I wasn't feeling brave enough to face Spring Break alone with all the kids and 39weeks pregnant. This team was kind enough to come the week before the baby, which I think is really selfless. The kids loved spending special time with Aunt 'Nini' They spent a whole afternoon getting pedicures and playing card games on the tramp. They also loved riding bikes and flying kites at the park. Aaron and Todd tiled the backsplash in our kitchen! (picture in next month's slideshow).
I have to publish a tribute to my amazing friends who really saw me through the last few weeks before my baby came. They brought me meals the week before as well as the week after, which did wonders. They kept up my spirits and kept my mind off the endless wait the last few days. And they completely carried our family through the first week after Jean arrived. When I say completely, I mean completely. I'm a different person because of their love and this experience.
February Chronicles
This was a month of 'heavy chats' with Addie. It's funny how those never leave you feeling like the wise and mentoring parent, but totally inadequate instead. And why do these pivotal and sensitive discussions always arise spontaneously? You never have time to prepare and organize your thoughts. Here is a glimpse into two that stand out among many. Both occurred at the kitchen counter while I was making dinner. Both conversations were initiated by Addie, out of the blue, after a period of non-conversation. I draw some interesting observations from that including 1. the kitchen is the heart of the home and family dinner (including preparation) nurtures a lot more than the body. 2. be a good listener. kids know what they want to talk about. 3. quantity time is what leads to quality time. just be together and good things will come of it.
#1 Deep Doctrine
A: "I get it mom. Adam and Eve had to be the first people on Earth because they had no mom and dad so Heavenly Father just made them grown ups."
T: yup.
there was some light discussion on the garden of Eden and the fall, then...
A: "wait, mom. How could Heavenly Father give them a rule not to eat the fruit, but they had to fall to get bodies and be tested?"
T: uuuughh...... I don't know. That's confusing. I'm trying to think what the scriptures and prophets say about that (I'm trying to sound like I know what's up, but get no where with it). Well, I guess that is a question I still have. But I can tell you this about it. God will always set us up for good- He won't hurt us It's really important to God that people can make their own choices and I think it has something to do with that. I can't explain everything, but I'm okay with that, I know enough to know the gospel is true.
Upon reflection I figure the knowledge of those things is more important than knowing the hows and whys of the story anyway. I hope Addie took that same thing away.
#2 Homosexuality
A: "so&so is star of the week this week!"
T: oh, that's nice. Did you learn anything interesting about her?
A: "yea, her grandpa is a girl!"
T: oh.......! (eyebrows raised, voice trailing off)
(I turn my back to her. Send an instant message to the Lord, that I'm going to brush over this one and deal with it later. Just 30 min. earlier I had to give the 'school safety' talk when she brought a letter home informing us a kid had brought a gun to her school. That's a touchy one to have with a kindergartner to let them know the guidelines without scaring them to death.)
I do some minor due diligence to see how much of an issue it is and the accuracy of the report. She is persistent about this as a point of interest from her day and about her friend. I take a deep breath, send another silent message to heaven and say,
T: "okay, I'll explain this so you can understand what happens sometimes, but it is probably not the kind of thing you should go back to school and discuss with ____."
Luckily we had been reviewing the primary scripture for the month which was, "The Family is ordained of God." from the Proclamation. So I started there, explaining that God created families and he is the only one who can say what a family is. Then I moved to the fact that some people don't know God or choose not to listen to Him and they try to say their own ideas about what a family is. etc. etc.
I make it as brief as possible and as generic as possible. I don't even use any technical homosexual terms. She sits for a moment at the end absorbing it all. I can see the wheels turning in her head. Then she gets a thoughtful look in her eye and tilt of her head and says,
A: "hmmm. Maybe the girl she was pointing to really was her grandma and she just said it was her grandpa. And the girl was her grandma"
T: (after a dumbfounded moment of silence, and a feeling like the joke's on me and Heaven is chuckling) There was a boy and a girl in the picture? (I swear I asked questions to cover this!). Yeah, it sounds like she has a family like God planned and it just got confusing when she was telling the class about the picture.
Post Script: an entertaining conversation between Aaron and I in the days preceeding Valentine's Day. It is a bit of a narrative really, and involves some confessions about each of us.
T: I just want you to know our vaccuume is going to break soon, so you should prepare yourself mentally, emotionally and financially to buy a new one. (I hate vaccuuming to begin with and I really hate my vaccuume)
A: Well, let me salvage the motor first.
T: Don't take too long, because that is about the only way I can think to break it. (pause) I guess I could throw it off the deck. But just so you know I don't plan on every using it again.
(A few days later Aaron is fiercely protecting the computer screen from my view as I wander in and out picking up and taking care of things)
A: I'm shopping for a Valentine's present. Don't look!
(I'm feeling impressed and flattered already that 1. he is actually putting some thought and sentiment into a gift and 2. he is doing it 7 whole days in advance. He just takes better and better care of me the longer we are married. But then about 10 min. later he is still at it and I've had time to get to thinking...)
T: This probably isn't the case, but it just crossed my mind and I thought I should clarify: a vaccuume would NOT be a good Valentine's present.
(He wilted. His hands fell from the mouse, his shoulders slumped and he turned to face me)
A: It wouldn't?
T: No! For real!? You are really looking for a vaccuume for me for Valentine's?!?
A: Why not? I was going to get a red one.
T: No way!
However, in the end he came through with flying sentimental colors. He usually does, but that was a close call.
Aaron did ask why a serving dish met the 'impractical' guideline. He was worried I'd call him on that. I said it is because I like cooking and it is more of an embellishment than a tool. Obviously his intuition told him that when he picked that out as a gift. His heart is good when he doesn't let his head get in the way; hence the guidelines.
January Chronicles
If you couldn't tell from the pictures, Enoch loves trains!
The big event of the month was his 2nd birthday. His sisters (& mom) had a lot of fun making his train cake together. Dad made him a really cool Strider bike that he can actually ride pretty well.
There are some subtleties in these pictures that I really like. For instance, the sippy cup tied to the Thomas train and Dad drilling a hole for the bike seat and leaving all the shavings in the middle of the living room!
We celebrated in the morning and then dished all the kids out to friends while Aaron and I went to the temple. I felt just a bit guilty for that even though I was pretty sure he didn't realize the neglect. It gets pretty hard for me to make the 4hr drive and 2hr session this late in pregnancy so we were motivated to get one last trip in for the next few months.
My guilt was dispelled when I got home and the family watching Enoch made him birthday brownies with candles and gave him some of their favorite stuffed animals as gifts. He carried those around for days in place of the trains so they must have made it special.
