Little Scriptorians

Oh to some day be a scriptorian! I admire those who can just randomly quote scriptures and know every scripture story. My Dad is a scriptorian. You can just start reading a scripture out loud to him, and he will almost always be able to tell you what chapter and book you are reading from in the Book of Mormon. He has memorized a verse from every chapter and when he goes for daily hikes he will start from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and go through to the end reviewing in his mind. It's pretty incredible. I am not quite there yet . . . but I would love to get there!I don't know if it is genetic or what, but my children have inherited a bit of that scripture genius.

A few months ago the Stake Primary Presidency was visiting our ward and they attended Primary. During sharing time the leader was asking the children about something and asked, "Can anyone tell me an example in the scriptures of this?" Drew, knowing the answer to every question, immediately shot up his hand. When called upon he replied, "THEREFORE . . . BE NICE!" Certainly that's got to be in the scriptures somewhere right? :) All of the adults including the Stake Presidency got a kick out of that. Drew isn't the only scriptorian though.

The other day my parents were at my house and the kids were a little excited and showing off. Hayden got his scriptures out and was proudly presenting them to Grandma and Grandpa Barksdale, and he had the page turned to the picture of Moroni. My Mom asked Hayden, "Are those your scriptures? Is that a picture of Mormon . . . or is it Moroni?" I was with Mom, it took me a second and I was about to answer the question out loud but Hayden spoke up first. He said, "I know it's Moroni . . . you want to know why?" I was waiting for what funny thing he might say. And then he said, "Because Mormon did most of it . . . and then he told Moroni to hide it." Oh the pride of a parent. I love it when you realize they actually are listening! :)

Jedi Training

Some may not know this, but I actually have two fully trained Jedi's living here who not only know how to use the force but do on a regular basis. And whatever you do, don't you dare smile like, "Oh Drew, you are so cute" after Drew gives you some Jedi wisdom because he will immediately come back at you with, "No Mom, seriously . . . that's true." The other day we were driving in the car and I was saying that we needed to ask Dad about something, and Drew said in a serious voice, "Mom, Dad said yes."
"What?"
"No really, I'm using the force. My mind can speak with his mind."
Oh boy, how can you beat this kind of entertainment?
Well tonight before bed I walked upstairs and the boys were fighting with their light sabers with their eyes closed. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. They were totally serious and apparently they were using the force to detect where to place their light sabers. I grabbed my camera but I was too late. Instead I tape recorded them giving me their light saber techniques and had them demonstrate them for me. When Lamon sees these videos he will probably wonder why in the world I was doing this instead of cleaning the messy living room pictured in the background. But you know, this is important business. If Jedi moves aren't practiced regurlarly . . . it is very possible that you could lose all of your skills. I mean honestly . . . I need a lot of practice! I didn't even hit Ada's light saber more than once the entire time. My moves were superb, but I need to work on my accuracy. I have my work cut out for me.

The Death Water

Some months ago my brother Dave and I were reminiscing about our childhood. Among the memories we discussed was one that is quite shameful. In this memory we both agreed that we were very comparable to Sid from the movie Toy Story. One day when we were kids we decided that we wanted to play scientist/inventors. So we put all of Dave's toys GI Joes, Hemans, cars, helicopters etc. at the bottom of his bunkbed and covered them with a blanket. Then we climbed to the top of the bunkbed and jumped off of the top bunk onto the toys below breaking some of them (sorry Mom if you are reading this). And then we found creative ways to put them back together. Terrible I know. But unlike Sid we were not evil or mean as we did this, it was all innocent I assure you. Well, the last few days I have wondered if we don't have a bit of a Sid living amongst us here in our house. None of my children torture their toys. But we have had some runins with "bug" torture. My kids are intrigued by bugs . . . spiders etc., and are not very scared of them. There has been a few times that Ada has come to me telling me that there is a spider somewhere in the house and politely asks me if she can take a shoe and kill it. Pretty brave for a three year old girl. Once when I lived at home it took me 2 hours to kill a spider in my room . . . and I was eighteen at the time.
Anyway, a swift killing of a spider is nothing to worry about. But everytime there has been an opportunity to kill a spider or an insect lately Drew will say, "No Mom! Don't kill it!" The first time he said this I thought, "Oh how sweet. He doesn't want the poor little creature to die." But then he followed by saying, "Don't kill it. I want to go put it in the 'Death Water'". I have since learned that the "Death Water" is a bucket of water in the backyard that we put under the hose spicket. I don't know how many insects/spiders have met their demise in the "Death Water" by Drew, but I'm thinking more than one.
I've killed plenty of spiders in my time, but I've always been humane. I'm just hoping that Drew, like Dave and I, has had no intended "Sid like" behavior while doing this. But just in case . . . we read a great book yesterday by Roald Dahl called the "Magic Finger." In the story there is a little girl who has a magic finger which she can't control. When she gets angry at someone her magic finger goes crazy and strange things happen. Well she hates that her neighbors love to hunt and kill animals. One day they shot a bunch of birds and ducks and she got so angry that her magic finger went to work. Unbeknownst to her while she was sleeping these neighbors transformed into Ducks while the family of the Ducks they had slaughtered became human sized. The Ducks moved into their home while they had to make do building a nest and sleeping outside in the tree etc. When they awoke they were faced with four ducks below them with guns pointing up at them in the air. The Gregg family had a change of heart, and got rid of their guns and vowed never to kill another bird. It was a really funny book, but I think it is going to be a great reference book for when Drew has these torturous tendencies! :) Of course suddenly I am recalling an incident when I was a child involving worms, plastic knives and playing surgeons/doctors . . . I had forgotten about that. We turned out alright I guess. Maybe I shouldn't worry too much about the "Death Water."

Swaddling

I love to swaddle (is that how you spell it?). There is something about swaddling that just helps a baby sleep longer and better. It is wonderful. But it is a little bit irksome to me that most baby blankets are just too small to adequately swaddle a baby for any extended period of time. After a couple months you have to give up wrapping your baby up tight because your baby has grown too big. Has anyone else experienced this same dilema? It's a sad day when swaddling is over. Well I wasn't ready to give it up yet with Tilson. Me and my magnificent brain thought . . . "Hey. I don't have to use baby blankets to wrap this bundle of joy up! I can use bigger blankets!" And I have. So at six months Tilson is still being swaddled every night, and sleeps like a dream!

Of course I realize that at some point he is going to have to learn to sleep on his own. I can't swaddle him forever! . . . Or can't I? I decided to test it out on my other children!

Yep . . . he should be good until he is seven! Sweet!

Master of Languages

I really do believe that some people are blessed with the gift of tongues. Language just comes easy to some people. I am not so much one of those people. But . . . I do know a little child who just might have that gift . . . or at least HE thinks he does. A couple months ago Hayden informed me, "Mom, did you know that I know Baby language? . . . And I didn't even have to go to a camp!" Pretty impressive! Since that time he has presented us with all sorts of "languages" that he has mastered. Among them is a language that he calls "grumble" language in which each word spoken is done so by simultaneously sucking in air as he speaks. For a while he went around speaking in "Grumble" language a good part of the day. The other language he has used quite often is baby language or what he simply defines as "Whine." If Tilson happens to be crying Hayden will volunteer to translate for us. He will tell us, "I know 'Whine' Mom. Tilson just said he wants a drink." Or Hayden will get up in Tilson's face and simply start saying using different intonations, "Whaa, whaa, whaa? Whaa, whaa, whaa, whaa whaa . . . " And then listen for Tilson's response. I can't lie . . . I'm excited to see where this Master of languages goes in life. With these languages that he has mastered already who knows what he might do! He did tell me the other day that he knew all of the languages except for spanish. Oh Hayden, you are awesome!

That's not funny! . . .

Has anyone else had a hard time trying to displine a child who is misbehaving, when you really just want to laugh? I have to admit that this happens quite often for me. On Sunday Ada was being a little stinker in church. She was wiggling around and talking too loud, and during the sacrament we were trying to get her to sit down and be quiet.
"Ada, can you sit down and be quiet?"
And then in a sassy voice she says, "A-D-S . . . Yes." She was obviously copying the boys, but lacked the phonetic skills . . . We should have insisted on her talking in a quieter voice and then followed through with getting her to sit still, but instead both me and Lamon started to laugh. It was during the sacrament hymn, and we had a hard time containing ourselves. Irreverant I know. But it was really funny.
Kids can be so funny even when they are naughty! A few days ago the boys got into one of their little fights. I made them come into the living room and sit on the couch while I listened to each side of the story. I was trying to get them to work it out, but it was a little hard because the whole time this serious talk was going on Drew was doing "Arm farts" which I hate! Ask me how happy I am with the neighbor friend who taught him that trick! Everytime he does his "arm farting" we tell him that it is not funny and crude. But this time I was intrigued because he was involved in this serious conversation while simultaneously making these tooting noises with not his arm, but his leg. I have to admit that I was kind of amazed at his skill at this. But don't worry. I didn't laugh and I gave him the "that's not funny Drew" speech without any problem. But it was hard I assure you! And I would be lying if I said that I didn't for a minute think about trying to do it myself when no one was looking . . . just to see if I could. I promise that it was a very short lived thought though.

Navigational Errors

I worry about my brain sometimes. I really do. I have got to be the most unobservant person that I know of. And yes . . . I am a little bit navigationally challenged. I have told multiple people multiple times that the GPS is one of the greatest inventions ever invented, and that the manufacturers should put "Marraige Saver" as a selling pitch on all of their advertising. I can recall a few times before the GPS that Lamon was a little less than pleased with my inability to read a map and in my failure to help him figure out where we were going. The day we got a GPS was a very blessed day!
Anyways, I shouldn't even admit to this . . . (it will really reveal the extent of my brain problems), but a few weeks ago I dragged Lamon along with me garage saling. On our way back I was just chit chatting away and I looked out my window. I was noticing what a difference it makes when someone takes care of their yard. There were some old homes that were so classy looking, and next to it would be an old home that looked like it needed to be condemned . . . all because of the yard. I mentioned this to Lamon. All of a sudden Lamon turned right down a street.
"Lamon! Where are you going?" I said. This was not the way to get home!
Lamon gave me the "Mary, Are you there?" look and said, "Uh . . .home? We are on ----- N Mary."
And sure enough we were! . . . In my mind we were still way North. Oh it is fun to be me. It's not the first time I have gotten lost to my own house. But I'll save that story.
Another Navigational Adventure happened about a month ago. Lamon was working the Saturday of the Kimball Reunion at This is the Place State Park. It sounded like so much fun. I decided that I was going to be brave and take the four kids myself. I could do it! I put the address into the GPS (that wonderful blessed device) and off we went.
Well, I can find a way to get lost even with a GPS! It is talent that few people possess. The tricky thing with the GPS is that by the time it talks to you . . . sometimes it's too late to make the turn/exit. So I was trying to anticipate the turns etc. To make a long story short . . . I made a couple wrong turns . . . took a couple wrong exits . . . and each time I did I would say "Oops." And the kids kept asking, "When are we going to get there Mom?"
"Oh . . . sometime."
At one point I actually made a wrong turn and was heading up the canyon. Hayden asked me, "Are we almost to Salt Lake?" To which I replied, "Actually we are headed to Park City right now."
"Huh?" . . .
"Oh nothing . . . we will get there."
And we did eventually. It took a little longer, but I think it just added to the adventure. And I was proud of myself for being brave. The kids did have a blast. We stayed there all day long. Here are some pics of our fun "brave" day. And I am pretty sure if I had to do it again I could find my way there . . .