In Which Jackson Saves Brian's Life

I had a very mom-centered birthday. Brian was still gone, so I spent the day with my boys. We didn’t do anything special, and I was feeling tired of the single parent thing. So I ordered a pizza for dinner and, after putting the boys to bed, I watched a movie and ate my cake straight out of the pan with a fork. It was quite nice actually.

Brian got home on Tuesday evening and dropped me off at the church on our way home from the airport. I was in charge of Enrichment night (a quarterly activity for the women at my church). It went great, and it was wonderful to come home to sleeping boys, a smiling husband, and a clean house.

Friday morning Jackson went to the dentist for the first time. He didn’t know much about what happens there, and was very excited to be there. He wanted to take the bib off, which wasn’t surprising; I couldn’t keep one on him as an infant. And he got a little nervous after the hygienist reclined the seat, but after a new-monster-truck bribe, he was awesome. He has 20 teeth, which he told to a couple random people, he has no cavities.

Brian was stoking the fire in our wood stove one day this week. We’ve been using it to heat the house, but he forgot to close the safety gate that surrounds it. Jackson hurried over and shut it and said, “Dad, I just saved your life!”

Sugar Cookies

In Which Hailey Learns to Knit

Brian flew out west to attend his grandmother’s funeral this weekend. He was able to spend time with many relatives he hadn’t seen in more than a year. The funeral was a moving experience, and the whole family enjoyed relating happy memories of grandma.

The boys were feeling pretty sick at the beginning of the week, but they seem to be recovering now. We went to a playgroup at the Superior Dome and Jackson kept lying down on the bleachers and kept asking to leave. He must have been feeling pretty bad.

Tuesday morning I learned to knit. Brian teasingly said I looked like an old lady knitting. But I really like it and I’ve finished my first washcloth and have started on my second. It’s great to have something new to work on, despite what Brian says.

Jackson really doesn’t like to talk on the phone, even on speaker phone. He cowers away from it whenever we try. Brian was trying to talk to him this week. Brian asked Jackson a question which Jackson answered then promptly said, “bye.” Brian didn’t hear him say it and asked another question. Jackson responded by saying, “I already said goodbye!” Even Dad doesn’t get special treatment. Grant on the other hand was ecstatic. He kept holding his breath, he was so happy.

Anna, Jackson’s friend, and her mom came over this week and we made sugar cookies. The good news is the cookies turned out really good, the bad news is my kitchen was completely covered in flour! Jackson is pretty good at rolling the dough and cutting the cookies, so I just kind of let him do it himself. When my back was turned he poured a whole cup of flour on his dough and kept spreading it all around. He had a good time, but the cookie dough wasn’t salvageable.

We started really working on potty training again this week. And to our pleasant surprise it’s actually working. So keep your fingers crossed.

Sleepy Grant

In Which the Mommy Fish Eats Tuna

Tuesday evening, Grant was eating dinner in his high chair. After a few minutes, Brian realized that he had fallen asleep. We debated on whether we should put him to bed, because it was only 6:30. But we did and he slept until 8:30 Wednesday morning.

We’ve been reading The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten; it’s about underwater food chains, to Jackson lately. He’s learned that Phytoplankton are eaten by Zooplankton who are eaten by anchovies who are eaten by tuna. We’ve mentioned a couple times that we, especially me, eat tuna. Today when Brian was quizzing Jackson on this particular food chain, Jackson ended it with Mommy Fish eating the tuna.

Saturday morning, on the way home from a photo shoot, we received some bad news. Brian’s paternal grandmother passed away in the night. A few hours later we learned that my sister-in-law was in labor. The baby, Eliza Brooke, arrived here safely and is healthy. Brian is heading to Boise this weekend for the funeral. It was a bitter-sweet day.

This morning we woke up to a lot of snow on the ground. We joked that it would be great to have a snow day from church (I had 2 lessons to teach), and lo and behold, we received a phone call: church was cancelled due to the weather. We felt guilty for a while, and then we enjoyed a nice family day together by the fire.