Sunday, January 28, 2007

I said goodbye to Melanie today with a promise for a future visit to St. George - hopefully in February over President's Day weekend to go to the Parade of Homes. I really enjoyed her visit and am planning menus for healthy eating - something has got to change and it will only come if I start it.

I can't remember if I mentioned Ellie's word for banana - "namanamas"-she asks for it first thing when I change her diaper in the morning. She has begun pulling hair when frustrated, hers and ours. She seems fearless except when it comes to other people. Zippers are a new fascination for her, as well as stacking or nesting anything she finds, usually cups in the kitchen. Aunt M~ is trying to get her to start matching items. I know she is well-intentioned, but I don't feel good about it. At this point her play should be play and not testing or pleasing an adult. She is very bright and will have no problems picking those things up when she is ready to ad when it means something to her. Maybe I'll suggest just following Ellie's lead and doing Primary songs if she is interested.

Michelle snuggled with me during quiet time. Nicole has been devising "hanger traps" - when you open the door a whole chain of interlinked hangers goes crashing to the ground. It just sends her into fits of laughter. Michelle also wrote a cute note to me today. I believe I am going to design a family mailbox and see if they like the idea and use it.

I read more to Spielberg (and girls) from The Alliance. It is getting really interesting now and presents several ethical dilemmas and opportunities for discussion. Spielberg keeps asking questions and guessing what he thinks will happen. I love to see his mind at work. He designed several two-dimensional characters out of perler beads. They are plastic beads you place on a shape that has points sticking up (imagine a bed of nails). The you melt them together by ironing them together under a piece of parchment paper. He has come up with a clever way to make them stand stand and be able to hold things. Michelle accidentally knocked one over before it had fused together. I was impressed with how Spielberg handled it. He didn't show anger at all and they worked together to pick them up. He has a wonderful heart.

I cuddled with Tyler today too. He tried throwing up three times today.His tumor is quite squishy today. I tried the trick of putting baby powder in his hair so it would look less greasy (thank you teenage hormones). It worked.

I'm getting very tired, but I still have so much to do! I remember a quote from my high school seminary wall: "Days are like suitcases, some people can pack twice as much into theirs."

One of the boys in my class wrote a paper on "Would you rather have a leader with character or one with knowledge?" His paper was very insightful and he concluded that "Where you have faith, you also have knowledge." Very astute for a 14 yr old.