Derrick's first birthday

A few months ago I decided to figure out exactly how far apart my sister Lindsey and I are in age.  I did a little counting and determined that we are 2 years, 5 months, and 8 days apart.  Then, for fun, I decided to figure out how that related to my own kids.  If I had been born on the girls' birthday, October 31, 2010, then Lindsey would have been born today on April 8, 2013.  As an odd coincidence this happens to be Derrick's first birthday. So in the same amount of time it took my parents to have two kids I have managed to have 3 and start working on another.  

Lindsey came up for a visit this weekend.  We did a little photo shoot with Derrick for his first birthday.

He's had some bi-cuspid teeth trying to grow in lately so he wasn't in the best mood.  But he'd smile if I tickled his legs.

This was supposed to be a family photo, but Charlotte and Lydia decide to start naptime right when I wanted us to do the photo shoot.  Consider this a family photo from an alternate reality.

We celebrated Derrick's birthday yesterday because Brandon had some overnight training scheduled for this week and we weren't sure if he would be here tonight.  (He will be, but he'll be packing to leave early tomorrow.)  It also made sense to take advantage of a whole Sunday without any commitments besides watching conference.

The girls helped me mix up Derrick's cake while he took his morning nap.  They'd picked out a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for him.

I asked the girls if we should make a layered cake or a cake with a hole in it.  They replied with, "Shrek Layer Cake - No."  Obviously they have been watching Shrek quite a bit.  I had no idea they were picking up on the whole Ogers have layers thing.   They didn't want layers so we used the bunt cake pan which is a way easier cake to make anyway.  

Brandon made delicious enchiladas for dinner.  None of the kids really appreciated them though.  Then we cleared the table and got ready for cake.  The girls have been eagerly awaiting this moment for weeks.  They like to say, "Dewick birthday - one candle - bye bye bottles"  all the time.

Brandon brought the cake out and we all sang Happy Birthday.  Here is a video of Derrick and the cake.

Brandon had to blow out the candle.  Then we gave everyone a piece of cake.  Derrick started out eating little pieces of frosting, but then he moved on to eating handfuls of cake.  

He really liked the cake.

The girls did too.

Charlotte kept asking, "My birthday?"  I told her that her birthday is far far away. We'll have the new baby before her birthday.

After we got everyone cleaned up we let Derrick open his present.  There are more than enough toys in this house so he really only needed one present.

He loves to push things around like they are cars so we got him five little cars to play with.  It's a good thing we got five.  Charlotte and Lydia each took two and so Derrick had one to play with.  Later the novelty wore off and the girls understood that they are all "Dewick's caws."

Today Derrick slept in and then woke up very happy.  He's been in a great mood all day.  I think he knows that he is one year old now.  

The girls have known for weeks that Derrick's birthday would be when bottles would go "bye bye."  I have been looking forward to this for a long time.  I absolutely HATE washing out bottles.  I would have taken bottles away months ago, but the fact that Derrick needed them kept me from doing it.  Now that he is a year old I can start weening my pseudo-triplets off of them.  

I thought about doing some sort of cool thing to say good bye to the bottles, but really I just washed them out and put them in the laundry room.  Derrick still gets bottles when he needs them, but I hope to have him weened long before the new baby is born.  Charlotte and Lydia are going cold turkey.  If they want a bottle before a nap or bed time I offer them a treat (right now it's 3 m&m's) instead.  I don't want to jinx anything, but so far the girls are doing just fine without bottles.

Here is a picture of the girls washing out bottles for me.  (They think it's fun.)

Derrick's two favorite things right now are peek a boo and playing with the light switches.  He's learned to put his hands on his face to play peek a boo.  Usually he covers his cheeks instead of his eyes, but that just makes it cuter.  Here he is playing with the light switches.  I used to hold him while he played with them, but then I discovered it was easier to put him on a chair.  He loves to flip a switch and then turn around to look at the light so see what changed.  Then he flips the switch again.

Having three kids 17 months apart can be a little crazy, but I am glad that Derrick joined us.  I love when he gives me a hug and pats my back.  I love how he will look at me and his face lights up with a huge grin. I love hearing him say, "Uh Oh" every time he drops something.  

Derrick is such a fun boy.  I've decided that he is very cautious.  At this age Charlotte and Lydia were covered in bruises from learning how to stand and walk.  Derrick doesn't have a bruise on him.  He waits to do things until he is absolutely ready.  He took his time learning to stand up against the couch, and then to walk along the edge of the couch.  He was the same way with standing on his own.  And I know he wont walk until he is ready.  I also know that when he does take his first few steps they will be very steady.

Derrick has always loved to give kisses.  When Brandon was gone I joked that Derrick made sure I still got enough kisses. I can ask him, "Derrick can I have a kiss" and his eyes light up.  He'll open his mouth and plant a big, wet, toothy kiss on my lips.  He'll do it over and over and over again and giggle the whole time.  

Derrick loves to play with Charlotte and Lydia.  And for the most part they love to play with him.  I love hearing one of them say, "Come on Dewick" or "Dewick too."  Sometimes all three of them crawl around the house chasing each other.  Of course there are also times I hear, "don't touch it Dewick."

Here are some pictures of other things that happened this week.  

Our neighbors have a lot of dandelions in their yard.  The girls love to go over there and pick flowers.  

Charlotte squishes them all into her hand and then makes designs with them on the sidewalk.

Lydia puts them all into one large bouquet that she carries around for hours.

I don't know why I took this picture - other than it shows how cute Derrick looks in overalls.  (And that I mopped the floor - this is really the only proof that I do mop.)

Brandon had some overnight training last week and so I made a tent for the rest of us to play in to keep our minds off of the fact that he was gone.  

The girls loved the tent and played in there all evening.

And they slept in there as well.  I started out sleeping in there, but Brandon's training was cancelled due to inclement weather so he came home around midnight and I just went to bed with him.

Lindsey came up on Thursday to visit.  The cousins all had fun playing together.

This was our first "normal" visit because it wasn't a rescue mission or a vacation.  It was nice to just relax together.  We took our kids to the park on Friday.  Here are the girls wiping the swings.

Derrick and Knoxx had lots of fun putting wood chips on the side and then pushing them off.

Do these guys look like twins or what?  Knoxx can walk and I was hoping he could show Derrick a thing or two, but Derrick was content to just stand and maybe do a squat or two.  

On Saturday we went to a casual 5K race for my stake.  We only did one lap, but it was fun to show off the stroller.

Then we came back home and got ready for conference.  Lindsey and I cleaned up all the toys before the first session.  I was so surprised how fast the two off us could clean everything.  Brandon hooked the old laptop up to the TV and we watched conference over the internet.  Other than the fact that it started at 11:00 and sometimes skipped a bit it as just like watching it in Utah.

We gave the kids colored marshmallows to play with during conference.  They hardly lasted through the first talk.

Lindsey left when Knoxx needed a nap before the second session started.  We really enjoyed having her and her kids come visit.  I like that we live in the same state again.

Sunday night Charlotte wanted me to take this picture of her playing with the blocks.  She said, "picture me camera."  Yep, she's is part of my family.

And finally here is a picture that Lindsey took of me and Brandon.  Can you believe he went to basic training seven months ago?  At the time it seemed he would never be home again. It was hard to have him gone, but it was worth it.  I am so lucky to have him for a husband.

Late Night TV

The other night I was suffering from some pregnancy related insomnia.  I got out of bed and decided to find out when the late shows come on in this time zone.  Derrick normally sleeps through the night, but on this night he started crying.  I would have let him cry himself to sleep, but it was the night before Brandon's SIFT test and I didn't want to disturb him so I pulled Derrick out of bed.

As we sat on the couch and watched the late shows I kept thinking, "this feels really familiar."  I realized that Derrick and I used to always watch late night TV together.  Back when he was first born I'd turn on the TV during late night/early morning feedings.  Its funny how something that seemed so permanent at the time is now almost a distant memory.

Late night TV has a special place in my heart.  I think it's because of how I was introduced to it.  When I was seven years old I threw up all over my bed one night.  My dad had just come home from a meeting at the church.  He helped me clean up my bed and then he said, "do you want to watch TV with me?"  As far as I knew my dad never watched TV so I was excited for this rare treat.  I said yes and he brought me into the living room.  He explained that we were going to watch two competing late show TV hosts and decide who we liked better.  For the next hour we switched back and forth between David Letterman who had just moved to CBS and Jay Leno who was on NBC.  At the end we decided that David Letterman was funnier.  I've been a Letterman fan ever since.

Over the years late night TV always symbolised a departure from the ordinary.  Something to watch on nights I was allowed to stay up late.  If we stayed overnight at a hotel we always watched late night TV.  It was while watching TV at a hotel that my Dad and I stumbled across the Red Green Show.

That silly show became one of our favorites. It came on at 10:00 pm on Saturday night which was usually too late for my dad to stay up - he had early morning Bishopric meetings the next day.  We would tape the show and then watch it together at 4:00 am on Monday mornings because that was the earliest time my busy Dad had available.

My brother Billy joined in on my love for late night TV.  During high school I slept in the family room - which conveniently happened to be where the TV was.  I'd set the TV timer to turn off after Dave's Top 10 List.  Then I'd fall asleep while watching the show.  Billy slept in a little room next to the family room.  Some nights he'd stay up and watch the show with me.  Other nights I'd hear him laughing from the other room as he tried to fall asleep.

In college I discovered Craig Ferguson and the Late Late show.  I didn't get many chances to watch his show, but sometimes I'd try to catch up on his website.
Brandon and I even watched Craig Ferguson on our honeymoon.  We tried to see one of his shows when we were in California for our second anniversary, but we got stuck in traffic and missed the taping.

Derrick was born right after we finally broke down and hooked up a digital converter box to our TV.  After years of going cold turkey from late night TV I was excited to see what I had been missing.  In some ways I actually looked forward to getting up to feed Derrick.  I'd be like, "I am so tired . . . oh I haven't missed Craig's monologue yet - yay."  I really enjoyed sharing late night TV with the newest man in my life.

All these memories went through my mind as Derrick and I stayed up late the other night.  He snuggled next to me and seemed to say, "I really like hanging out with you.  Thanks for sharing what you love to do with me."  I'm excited to introduce Derrick to even more things that I love.

A Materialistic Easter

For the record, we tried to teach the kids about Jesus, the Atonement, and the Resurrection.  Here's how last weeks' family home evening lesson went.  

The kids screamed for most of Monday evening so we just skipped to the making cookies part.  The kids were all calm while the cookies baked in the oven so I figured it was a good time to try to teach them about Easter.  Here's basically how the lesson went.  Remember this is with absolutely no preparation.

Me (laying on the floor): You girls remember Jesus, right?

Char and Lyds: Baby Jesus

Me: Yeah and he grew up.

Char and Lyds: (Blank stares)

Me:  We'll he grew up and then he did something called the Atonement.  He paid for our sins.

Char and Lyds: (More blank stares, start wandering off)

Me: I wish I had a picture of the atonement. 

(Brandon jumps on his computer and tries to search for one.  He ends up with a pretty creepy looking picture.)

Me: This is Jesus taking our sins on him.  A sin is when you do something wrong.  And Jesus made it so we can be forgiven.  It's like when we say I'm sorry and then it's okay. 

Char and Lyds: Shrek, smash cake, say sorry, it's okay.  Mommy, fire, sorry too.  (This is a conversation we have EVERY day.  Months ago I let the kids watch the 4th Shrek and they were terrified of the scene where he smashes his kids birthday cake. We had to stop the movie and fast forward to the end where everything is okay again.  I told them that Sherk said "sorry" and then everyone said "it's okay."  That reminded the girls of something that happened a month before.  I'd accidentally left the fire burning on the stove for hours.  When I discovered it, I'd said sorry for putting the girls in danger.)

Me: Good Job!  After Jesus atoned for our sins he died for us.  (Brandon finds an even creepier picture of Jesus on the cross.)

Char and Lyds: (More blank stares - their only concept of death is the dead millipedes we sometimes find on the porch.)    

Me: And then he came back to life, that's called the resurrection.  So when we die we can be resurrected someday.  

Char and Lyds: (Wander off)

Me: And that's why we celebrate Easter - and why we do Family Home Evening when the kids are so little.  So that next year we'll know to have pictures to go with the lesson.

After that attempt at spirituality we felt just fine doing the whole Easter Bunny thing. 

We started out by dyeing hard boiled eggs on Saturday.  The girls had so much fun with the eggs.  Lydia learned to gently place them in the dye.  Charlotte never caught on and splashed her's in ever time.  When it was time to pull the eggs out the girls would shout out the color and clap.  Lydia added a "YAY" every time too.  

Saturday night the girls helped Brandon put grass in the bottom of each basket.  We bought the baskets at the dollar store.  Charlotte was supposed to have the pink one and Lydia have the yellow one, but they wanted it the other way around.  

Then we had the girls set the baskets on the piano bench and go to bed.  This led to A LOT of tears because the girls wanted to take the baskets to bed with them. Eventually we convinced them that the Easter Bunny couldn't come until they were asleep.

Once they were in bed we busted out all the candy and other things we've been stockpiling. I've been buying a bag of candy every time I go grocery shopping for about a month.  

In addition to candy we put notebooks, sidewalk chalk, and toothbrushes into the baskets.

Brandon spent a lot of time making a treasure hunt with picture clues for the girls to follow around.  He even put a secret message on the back of the clues.  He missed a lot of major holidays last year so he was happy to be able to do a lot for this one.  

We have church at 8:30 on Sunday and it's always a rush to get ready and out the door in time.  So we knew we'd have to wait until after church to celebrate.  The girls were very upset that they couldn't go look for their baskets right away.  We promised they could look as soon as we got home.

They ended up going on a little egg hunt as part of nursery.  The whole way home from church they sat in their car seats and happily opened their eggs and ate their candy.

Then we got home and they wanted to find their baskets.  Brandon gave them the first clue.  It was a picture of somewhere in the house.  We had to help them at first, but by the 9th clue they knew what to do.

The clues led them to the office. We hid the baskets in the office because we knew the girls wouldn't accidentally go in there before church.  Several months ago our friend Laurie gave each of the kids a rabbit.  I snuck them out of the kids bed's while they were sleeping and put them next to the baskets.  Charlotte was so happy to see her "bun-nee."

Then the kids all had fun eating their candy and looking at their presents.

I made sure I sat by Derrick so I could steal his candy.

Everyone enjoyed the "Eassser basss-kets."

Here is the message that the Easter Bunny left on the back of the clues.  The girls had fun finding the clue and reading the letters.

Lydia doing her chipmunk impression.

After a few minutes of eating candy we took the girls outside to look for the eggs that we'd dyed.  (Brandon had hid them during a conveniently timed diaper change break.)

The girls had so much fun running around and putting things in their baskets.

This was such a change from last year when they hardly paid attention to the eggs.

This was the best picture I could get of both girls in their Easter dresses.  These are both hand-me-down dresses.  I have some very fashionable cousins that are only a few years older than the girls.  I love getting their hand me downs because I don't have to worry about picking out cute clothes.  Charlotte and Lydia were so excited when I showed them the 3 or 4 "new" dresses and told them to pick out what they wanted to wear on Easter.  They picked out their dresses that then insisted on wearing them the rest of Saturday night.  Lydia even wore her's all Monday too.  

Once all the eggs were found we went inside for "lunch." Which consisted of candy and eggs.

We went back outside so the girls could play with their new sidewalk chalk.

Derrick crawled into the garden (I've decided I can't grow children and plants at the same time so we have another bare garden this year)  He had fun playing in the dirt. Later he got his first fire ant bites - I'm surprised he's lasted this long.  

I went inside and took a nap while Brandon was in charge of the kids.  The kids all sat in the living room and played with their baskets and candy.

Brandon and I both expected major sugar induced fighting, but it never happened.

They all played really well together for over an hour.

I got up from my nap, and Brandon started working on dinner.  The kids were kind of in his way so I distracted them with Skype.  We talked to my Mom and Dad for a long time.  

Charlotte and Lydia were hopped up on sugar and so were very entertaining for my parents.  My dad later told me that if we could harness their energy all the worlds energy problems would be solved.  After a while the girls wandered off and started playing under the piano.  Charlotte fed her bunny breakfast.  If you look closely you can see that it is candy.

Then it was time for dinner.  Derrick had melted down while Skyping so he was already asleep.  Charlotte cried and asked for a nap as soon as I put her in her chair.  She cried all during the prayer so I put her to bed.  Lydia lasted long enough to eat some jello and then she was gone too.  So Brandon and I enjoyed a romantic Easter Dinner together.  

Then we were left with a major dilemma.  Do we let the kids sleep after 5:00 and risk having them stay up until 11:00 pm? Or do we get them up and endure major crying?  We decided to let them sleep until 5:45 and then take them on a drive.  That way if they cried we at least weren't stuck at home with them.  So that is what we did.

We drove East and then North towards Waco.  Then we turned around and drove on some really pretty country roads.  The girls actually fell asleep for most of the drive.

When we got home we had the girls open their Easter cards from Bestemor (Brandon's Mom).  She always sends confetti in her cards and so the girls love opening them.

Lydia immediately started collecting all the rabbit shaped ones.  And putting them into an egg.

Then it was time for bed.  Despite the ride they did stay up until 11:00.  But at least they played quietly in their room most of the time.  (And then slept in until 8:00 the next morning)  Brandon and I kept saying, "this has been such a good day!"