Child-Proof, Schmild-Proof

I hate child-proofing devices. Hate them. When Alison was a baby she began opening and closing all the cabinets within reach. We were concerned that her fingers would get pinched (and we were sick of picking up pots and pans all the time), so we invested in some child locks for the cabinets:After Nathan installed the first one, we tested it out. Success! Both he and I had a hard time opening the cabinets! We assumed that we would quickly learn how to maneuver these new locks; after all, we were trying to protect our child. Nathan spent quite a while drilling and screwing in all of the safety locks, and as he finished up the final lock, we discovered that Alison had already discovered how to open the first cabinet. She had outsmarted the locks.

I remember visiting my sister's house and seeing that there was a lock on the refrigerator, thus preventing her 7 children from having complete access to the goods in the fridge. I was quite impressed with the device and noted that one day I would need one of those. The next time I visited her I saw that it had torn in half and was no longer serving its purpose.

So, I hate child-proof devices, and it's been years since I've purchased any child-proof anything. But, now I have Max. He's a very sweet, charismatic, handsome young boy whose smile melts me. He can pretty much get away with anything (e.g. painting his face with mascara, spilling my foundation all over his shirt, ripping Nathan's desk-top scrapbook calendar--Nathan doesn't know about this yet, losing my keys at the Outlet Mall and stranding us for 20 minutes...you get the point...and that was just today). Well, Max has full access to my double pantry and my side-by-side refrigerator, so he gets into cereal, popsicles, crackers, cheese, anything he wants all the time. It drives me crazy, so I decided to give the child-proof devices another shot. So I went and purchased these babies.

It promised to keep my children from getting into the pantry and refrigerator all the time. I was excited. So, I put these locks on and waited for it to be tested. Shortly thereafter Kaitlyn asked if she could have a snack, and I told her to wait until Alison got home and then they could have their snack together. I smiled at myself as she walked away, because I knew she wouldn't be able to get the snack without me...she would have to be obedient!

A couple of minutes later Kaitlyn walked in the room and said, "Mom, I can show you how to open these locks. And I got some peanut butter crackers." Nice. See why I hate child-proofing? And, if you're wondering if they've worked for Max, the short answer is: NO.

*note her outfit...there is more than 1 way to wear a skirt

Megan's Family Reunion Summary (2 Months Later)

We just had the family reunion with Megan's side of the family. "Just" as in 2 months ago. My excuse for just now getting to writing about this? My work and travel schedule. Megan and I calculated that I've been averaging 14 or 15 hour-days for the past 6-ish weeks. Ok, ok...you're very astute: 6 weeks is not 2 months. What about the first 2 weeks? My excuse for that? It's society's fault, and I cannot be personally held responsible. But, enough finger pointing, blaming, and excusing...let's get on with the summary!

Megan went ahead and posted a collection of photos from the reunion for me to blog about, so let's see what we've got here.

This looks like our nephew Jonah taking a quick spin on the scooter on our back patio. While it's not a Spiderman scooter, I think it still worked for him.
Aah, here's Max collapsed after a day of playing in the water and sun at Holiday World. Holiday World is like Disney World, Indiana Edition. Instead of Tomorrow Land, and Adventure Land, it has 4th of July World, Thanksgiving Land, Halloween Town, Christmas Village and Ball Point Pen Day World and it's actually pretty fun. We spent most of the day in the water park and Max finally passed out after attempting to drown all day.

The trip to Holiday World was actually an adventure in itself. We were delayed leaving because we couldn't find Ben's shoes. Then we left the garage door open and had to turn around. Then we realized that we forgot Megan's swimsuit (an important item to take to the water park) and turned around again. Then, dark black clouds filled the entire sky and it started raining like a monsoon. After calling Holiday World and receiving their assurance that it wasn't, in fact, raining there, we decided to continue our drive anyway. As we drove and drove and the rain didn't seem to ever let up we kept calling Holiday World to inquire about the conditions there and they reassured us that "it never rains in Holiday World." We got there, and sure enough it was bright, sunny and hot! It was a Festivus miracle. We had to leave at 7:00 p.m. due to rain at Holiday World. (But we had a great time on the way there and back making up a song about our adventures to the tune of "We Will, We Will Rock You".)

Continuing on the water theme, we had a blow-up pool set up in our backyard one of the days so that the kids could track water and mud into the house much easier. Here's Benj, Grant and Gavin doing their best to tackle each other in the water.

Michael discovered Heaven and started playing guitar.

Nathan discovered Michael and joined in.

Jonathan discovered Nathan and Michael and took a turn playing drums.

Leah discovered her husband, Jonathan and showed him the correct way to use drumsticks! Who needs Rockband or Guitar Hero? We had a blast playing the real thing.

Nathan discovered that if you fly all the way across the country with your family of 9, and then get up at 6:00 a.m. to play golf with the guys in the family, that the couch will attack you in the afternoon and force you unconscious.

Here's another picture of playing in the pool in the backyard with Jessica, Ammon, Benj, Grant, Garrison, Scott, Gabby and Jonah.

Kaitlyn did something fun at the reunion, probably. She loves getting her picture taken.

Ammon, on the other hand, does not love getting his picture taken. He will turn around so you can't see his face.

Bonnie, Gavin and Ali figured out how to make a water slide: you put the slide into the water.

On Sunday night we had a family talent show. Alison showed off the ninja move that she saw on Ultimate Ninja Challenge that we found on satellite one night while everyone was here.

Kaitlyn used a candlestick as a microphone to sing Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Michael acted as the M.C. for the evening and was hilarious.

We wrapped up the reunion by flying 1 row ahead of Nathan, Melissa, Maddy, Jenna, Holly, Bonnie, Ben, Amy and Ammon back to Utah to attend my sister's wedding (which I blog about in approximately 2 months). It was great to see everyone and I think they all had as much fun as we did.

First Day of Second Grade

Alison happily began 2nd grade today, so I thought I would dote on her a bit. I really loved having her home this summer. She's a happy helper and very responsible. I rarely have to remind her to unload the dishes, make her bed, practice piano, clean-up after herself, etc. She's a hard worker, likes to stay busy, wakes up early (hopefully she keeps this trend up when she attends early-morning-seminary), and enjoys learning. She is so her father.

And here she is on her first day of school. She chose her "Girls are Hoop Stars" shirt. She's a bit of a tomboy, and was upset that I made her hair too curly.Here is Alison's at-home fan club. Kaitlyn and Max are bored without having her here. They've already let me know that I'm just no fun. And these are her bus-stop buddies. What a fun group!

Man of the House

Nathan has been traveling a ton and working extremely late, so he's not been able to blog. Bummer. So, here's the boy who's been serving as the man of the house:Not very manly, but pretty darn cute. Max has been pulling his "paci," his "buddy," and his "blankey" onto the chair and rocking when he gets tired. SO CUTE! And yes, I know he needs to get rid of the pacifier.

Ali's Birthday Carnival

For her birthday, Alison wanted to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese's or at BouncerTown and invite the whole world. It turns out that it's pretty pricey to host such an event for the entire planet, and the kids end up going off and doing their own thing so that much of the fun of having friends together for a party in the first place is lost.

So, to solve this dilemma, Ali decided to host a carnival at our own house in the basement. Alison carefully made, illustrated, and decorated signs that we put out in front of each carnival game. We gave each attendee a bag full of pennies (tokens) to pay to play the various games that we had set up:

• Shell game (vs. Nathan)--and it's a lot harder to fool 1st and 2nd graders than you might think!
• Dig for coins in a bucket of wheat
• Toss a frog (non-organic) onto a leap pad
• Wheel of fortune (spin the spinner to win tickets)
• Find the coins in a tub of Easter eggs
• Ring toss
• Basketball shootout
• Bottle knock-down
• Blackjack (kidding)

Based on the kids' ability to win the various games they earned tickets--real tickets that look exactly like the ones you win at carnivals. (We looked all over town and were able to find a roll of 2,000 tickets for $3.00.)

Then, with the tickets the kids amassed, at the end of the party, they were able to redeem tickets for prizes that we had set up on our counter.




The kids loved being able to "buy" bubbles, squirt guns, play dough, noisemakers, whistles, and candy with the tickets that they won. I quickly learned that in the economic world of 7-year olds low cost, instantly gratifying candy are in demand much more than quality soaking squirt guns that may cost more "tickets". I've never been on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but I imagine it is probably something similar to the group of hyper-energetic, anxious-to-transact, elementary school girls in our kitchen at Ali's party.


Our neighbors graciously loaned us their play bounce house, which we set up in the backyard and which we used for play time before and after the basement carnival's official hours.


We wrapped up the party with a High School Musical 3 cake, and present opening.

Happy Birthday Alison! We love you and hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Heaven

I've never been to heaven. Certainly it wouldn't be heaven unless Megan were there too. And, it wouldn't be heaven without my family there either. That's the truth.

Before I was married, I dreamed that heaven would look something like this:


A room full of musical gear--keyboards and amps and drums and recording equipment and microphones...

...with electric guitars like Fenders and Les Pauls on the wall...

...as well as acoustic guitars like Martins and electric basses hanging prominently alongside CD's I'd recorded.

If only I could be home more to actually record!

But, to put things in perspective, I am one pretty lucky man. I'm lucky to be married to a woman who is practically perfect in every way. We luckily have 3 beautiful children. And, I--I mean, we--luckily have a basement recording studio.

************

Now, on a completely unrelated note, I must show off some pictures of at least one of the kids...

Lately, Max has been particularly clingy--constantly wanting to be held. So, I had to mow the lawn with him in one arm. It was tricky. Not only was it uphill both ways, but the lawn mower was also self-propelling. I somehow had to hold down the gas the whole time while walking behind the mower.

Note: In addition to "helping" to mow the lawn, Max also likes ice cream and messes.

Guess Who?

Since I've started traveling again for work, we've been doing everything we can to keep in touch as a family: morning phone calls and family prayer, webcam at night (on nights when I'm not working until midnight), and emails back and forth, to and from each of the kids--in addition to Megan.

Here's how it works: the children dictate their letter to Megan who types it up and sends it to me from her email address with the subject "Letter from Kaitlyn" or "Letter from Alison" or "Letter from Max." Your task is to guess which of the following letters come from which child:

Letter #1

Dear Nathan C.,
I can read the scriptures very much, because I can sound out the words; when I grow up I'm going to be a teenager and I'll drive! Dear C. (that's me). And in the morning I'm going to wear my new shirt--that striped one--with my shorts...cause it's going to be very warm...I think. If Rebecca could play with me, that would be much more funner. Better with boys. Cause when it's with boys, it's not fun mom.

Love, Author #1

And we had ice cream. The end. So it's like a story. Then at the end I'll say "futbol!"

Letter #2

Hi Dad,
At school today we had specials at 10:05 and came back at 10:55. It was weird because the computer that hooked up to the screen that we pull down, the shows that put it on...they weren't working very well...it would work and then it would stop. I'm typing "Diary of a Snake"--it is a good story. One thing that we did was take a Math test before specials. It was really easy. I think I'm getting an "A" or and "S." On computer in tech lab we did research on our animals and typed about the animals we chose. I chose the gray wolf. It was cool because it was the largest dog in the dog family.

Love, Author #2

Letter #3

Wow it was a great day. Actually, I didn't really do anything. In the morning I ran around the yard while mom watered the lawn/plants/anything green. I pulled out an old picnic basket set that was in the garage---I took the pieces of the kit and put them in random places, so I'm sure you and mom will be finding them throughout the week. Then mom watched Gabby, and we played dress up. The girls got mad at me because I was bugging them. Mom made mac and cheese for lunch. I love picking out each noodle and throwing it across the room--did you know that I can get better distance with the peas? Then we went to Target. I did not like this at all! Mom wouldn't let me have anything! I wanted to play with the Roundup, but she wouldn't let me touch it. But once we got to the food department she bought me a string cheese--futbol! Then I came home and had a nice nap. When I woke up, mom and I cooked dinner. She then tried to feed it to me, but I wasn't hungry--doesn't she know I just like to throw the food!!! Rice is hard to throw, but I somehow managed to do it. Then we went to another author's softball practice. She did great from what I could tell. I sat in the stroller for a little while, while mom pushed it walking. I kept standing up then sitting down in the stroller--it was awesome! I was so tired at her practice though, so mom ended up putting me in my car seat and taking me for a ride. I know I was grouchy--but it was after my bedtime--what did she expect?! Mom surprised us and took us to Dairy Queen, she said something about how she can be a cool parent like you and get us ice cream. She got me a whole big ice cream cone (I think her idea of "teeny-tiny ice cream cone" was different than the worker's idea). I thought for sure that she wasn't going to let me have it, but she must've been feeling crazy b/c she gave the whole thing to me. It was awesome. I was so happy. I didn't throw it like I did all the other food she gave me today. I hope she learned her lesson. When we got home we had to finish our ice cream outside. Mom kept taking my picture--I must've looked handsome with all the ice cream on my face. Anyways, I was a mess, so she made me take a bath (LAME!). Now I'm in bed--sound asleep. Nice. How was work? Did you get to play guitar?

Love, Author #3

Well...how'd you do?