Before I begin, I would like to remind myself and anyone else who might ever read my history, that most of the stuff I discuss here are the extremes. I see so many moments when my children are behaving normally, and that stuff isn't interesting enough to post about. Moroni is gonna look bad after this post, and I feel bad about that. I also want him to be able to read this one day, because chances are, he will have a kid that acts just like he has. I want him to be able to look back, and realize that he turned out well, in spite of his three year old self. I also want to make it clear that even though he has tantrums, I cannot bring myself to ever hurt him. I get really frustrated, don't get me wrong. Sometimes a swat to the behind is quite necessary, but I would rather go and jump off a mountain, and hurt myself, than hurt my kid. When I get really mad, I want to go and slam my car into a bridge empartment (reference to Tommy Boy).
With that said, Moroni has had many difficult moments lately. The trouble usually begins when he gets tired or hungry. Just a word to his future wife and family. If he is acting up...feed him. It seriously makes all the difference. The problem is, because he is three, sometimes he makes all of the components and requirements of feeding him next to impossible. I have also learned as a mom, that if I pander to all of the outrageous demands of a three year old, then well, we are done for. I have to ignore the behavior and demands at first. They always get it after awhile. They figure out that mom doesn't play the "I will only eat out of the gray bowl " game. I hate this game. With Moroni sometimes it is how the food is displayed, who gets it for him, what kind of a dish it is in...etc. It is three year old stuff at it's worst. Because we are trying to ignore these demands at lunch time, and any other time when we are eating, he throws full on fits. It isn't pretty now, but I know that he will learn that he just better eat what is given him. The other day, he was hungry, and we were on our way to Hatch. I stopped at McDonalds and ordered a whole bunch of Chicken McNuggets. Yes, I know all about the pink slime thing, and we think that pink slime is yummy. Anyhow, we only eat out once every million years. Moroni threw a major tantrum because there were some fries missing from his package. MAJOR kicking, screaming, bawling. He did not want to share he wanted all of the fries in the world all to himself. I pulled over and tried to decide how to deal with him. I know that if he eats even a little, that I can reason with him. I finally told him that we just share and that is that. After he ate for a minute, he decided that he wanted to share with Dilly. When we stopped for our next break, I counted eight nibbled on nuggets that Mo had shared with Dill. They had little Dilly nibble marks. This means that after all of the kicking, screaming, and bawling, he kept two to himself...two. I also found his fries dumped on the floor, so yeah....I am pretty sure that fit wasn't worth all of the trouble. I also praised him up and down for sharing with his sister. When all was said and done, he was extremely generous.
He also threw a fit the other day when I wouldn't put his food in a gray bowl. You would have thought that we had a real crisis going on. He howled and bawled and refused to eat...oh well, I don't care if he doesn't eat, I wasn't about to hunt him up a gray bowl. I recall a time when Jerusha refused to drink a pop that my mom had purchased because it had a picture of a boy on it. Yep...Moroni is a typical three year old x 10.
Another time I caught him happily playing with his truck. Our friend Kinzley was over and he was playing with "Trudy the Truck." He and Chlo will play quietly and happily for hours. Chlo can either make or ruin his day. If she is in the mood to play pretend with him...our day is great. They will get a group of stuffed animals, toothbrushes, nail polish bottles...and play happily all afternoon.
We have also had some drama going on in the Rooshkie department. She really likes to choreograph dances to the latest and the greatest songs. Taylor Swift came out with a new song a few weeks ago, and Rooshkie has been happily making up a song to go with the music. She is quite talented...anyhow, the other night she had borrowed my phone to record the dance so that she wouldn't forget it. She started recording, and started the song, but no one else in the family was on board with what she was doing. Jamie walked in and commented loudly on how much she enjoys Cookie Crisp cereal...Rooshkie just ignored her and kept dancing. She also began banging cupboards loudly looking for the coveted cereal. Oak, just happened to be playing a computer game when the computer burped loudly. She frowned but still kept dancing. When the computer game belched a series of loud burps...I just couldn't help it. I started laughing. She finally hit pause, and admitted defeat. It isn't pretty or graceful to dance to burps....sorry Rooshkie.
Rooshkie and Jazz have also got a secret sign language back on the home front. We have had a friend from the stand-off staying with us, to help us with the cowboying and the melon planting. His name is Caleb, and he is thirteen years old....awesome young man. Anyhow, they are especially communicating secretly in front of Caleb. I am sure all of this is quite intriguing and mysterious to him. Anyhow, it is always kinda amusing to have them secret signing in front of anyone.
Last week we had a rabbit feast. My kids, Cliven and Ryan all get craving Rabbit. In fact, when people sell rabbits for Easter gifts, Ryan sizes them up for dinner rather than a cute pet. It always kind of offends people when he comes in and asks how fat they are etc. Apparently Ryan's Grandpa had rabbit raising down to an exact science. He would have cages and cages of rabbits that they would butcher and eat year round. Anyhow, they had a big rabbit fry the other night. Ryan fries them up like chicken. He fried up way too much though and we were eating rabbit for days. The other night Ryan and Caleb went out late in the evening with Arden to push some cows down the river. It is so hot these days, that all of the cattle working has to be done early in the morning, or late in the evening. Anyhow, I wasn't a very good hostess because I fell asleep before they got home. I wasn't up to get them dinner. In the morning, I apologized to Caleb and asked if they had eaten anything before they went to bed. He said that he and Ryan had eaten Cereal and Rabbit ribcages for dinner. I kind of paused a moment....rabbit ribcages??? I asked him about the rabbit ribcages, and he just explained that the only leftover rabbit that was left were ribcages....apparently ribcages are a less desirable piece...obviously. Sager has had volleyball camp this week...I asked her if I could pack her a rabbit ribcage or two in her lunch. She politely declined.
Jamie had camp Ruth last week. Camp Ruth is a camp that is for the older girls only, and it focuses on building their testimony. They had decided to do a faith walk, and have the parents show up at the end. The girls were not to know that their parents were going to come. This was all being held at a cabin at Duck Creek, so I figured that I could stash the rest of the kids at my mom's for awhile. Man...living in the desert makes me appreciate the beauty of the mountains of Utah in the summer. It was so gorgeous and cool up there. We watched as the girls were brought out blindfolded. A member of the Stake Presidency would counsel with the girls for a moment, and put their hands on the rope. The rope was long, windy, intricate, and had many side ropes going off into dead ends. It was all quite symbolic. All of us parents would watch for our child to be put on the path, and then would quietly follow them and hope that they would stay on the rope without a hitch. They also had many people placed strategically that would try to get the girls to let go or go the wrong way. If they messed up, they were removed from the rope, and sat down close by the rope. Their Bishop was then located, he would counsel with them, and then they were put back on. I was really touched as we silently watched Jams as she tried to stay on the right path so to speak..Ryan and I followed her closely, along with our Bishop and her Young Women's leader....very symbolic...anyhow, when the girl completed the course, she was standing there in front of her parents when the blindfold was removed. Most of the girls began to cry. Wames was excited and felt the spirit and all, but she had been tipped off by Dilly. She had coughed and made noise, and according to Wams, she knew we were there at that point. "No one else in the Stake that has a kid my age, are still having kids," was her reasoning. Well, ya got me there Wames. It is totally true.
We also had the opportunity to party it up for Oak's birthday. My oldest boy turned eight this week, and we are still making plans for his baptism. Anyhow, I took all of the kids to the rec center for the evening, along with Oak's best friend Hayden. I love our little Hayden friend. His dad is Tongan, and his mother is a really cute little blonde. Anyhow, Oak and Hayden are kindred spirits. They act so much alike, it isn't even funny. I was quite concerned about taking all of the kids by myself because Ryan was too busy to help me, and Wames was at drill team camp. Anyhow, luckily Mo got hooked on the slide and went up and down it over and over and over. He stopped briefly only to go off of the diving board a few times, at the amazement of everyone present. It wasn't too bad because the kids just took turns going around and around the slide with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment