Derrick's Third Birthday

So for the past several months I've been saying things like, "back when Derrick was two," or "Derrick did that when he was two."  And then I'll realize, "wait, Derrick is STILL two."  I guess that's what happens when your kid is the size of a four year old.  

Today Derrick finally turned three.  Last year his second birthday was pretty awful.  He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was grumpy most of the day.  He didn't want to play with his presents, he didn't want to eat, he just wanted to be grumpy.  It was hard because I'd put so much effort into his birthday.  So this year I decided to just focus on doing the few things he'd liked last year.  

The first thing was candles. About the only birthday related thing he'd liked last year was blowing out candles.  We started our tradition of blowing candles out over and over again on his birthday last year.  He loves to watch the video of him blowing out his candles.  He calls it something like, "Da Di Da Da" (Derricks' birthday cake.)  Every time we sing Happy Birthday he will make a blowing sound at the end.  

So when we went grocery shopping yesterday I handed him a package of candles.  He held on to them pretty much the of the rest of the day.  He called them "Day-ah" which I think was a mash up of Birthday Candles.

He even went to sleep holding them.

 During naptime the girls and I worked on his cake.  My sister gave me a train engine shaped pan so I was going to bake a cake in that.  But then I had the genius idea to make rice crispy treats and put those into the pan.  That worked really well and was so much easier than worrying about the cake.  I did use a cake mix to make two train car shaped cakes with bread pans.

The girls helped me frost the engine.  They wanted it blue like Thomas the Train.  I frosted the rest of the cakes after all the kids were in bed.  I had fun decorating it with leftover candies. My latest Netflix show is 30 Rock so I watched that while working on the cake.  What's kind of funny is that Derrick and I used to stay up and watch 30 Rock when he was a newborn and when Brandon was at basic training.  I remember a lot of the episodes from those late night parties with my buddy.

 Last year everything went south when Derrick woke up because I was trying to force him to experience his birthday.  This year I decided to just let it happen.  I put balloons out because I knew he liked those, but other than that I didn't have any other birthday stuff out.  When he woke up Derrick went right to his train and played with that for a little bit.

 Then he asked to watch "Hul."  Which means the last 20 or so minutes of the Avengers movie.  Derrick has recently picked up an obsession with the Hulk.  He likes to roar along with him.  It reminds me of when Lydia was two and loved the Hulk.  (She called him "Huck.")

 I tried to get a picture of Derrick's grin when he watches the Hulk.  He has these cute little dimples that show up when he's truly enjoying something. You can see that he's still hanging onto the candles.

 Eventually Derrick wanted breakfast and all the other kids followed him into the kitchen where they all had cheerios. Derrick wanted to watch the movie while he ate.  (This is pretty normal during breakfast.)

 And then it was back to playing with the train and watching the Avengers.

I figured this was a good chance to get the cake ready so I hurried and set it up.  Derrick was really excited to blow out the candles.  Here is a video of that.  (The girls blew out the candles for him, but he was still happy.)

 Lydia burned herself on the candle's wax so I hurried to get the baking soda to take out the heat. (It works like magic.)  And then we cut the cake.

 Someone remembered that we needed birthday hats (probably Charlotte, she loves hats).  I had them out I just forgot to have everyone wear them so I hurried and helped everyone put them on.  I was really impressed that Derrick wanted to wear one.

 He took it off after a little while though.  I made sure I had two match books handy and we spent a while lighting the candles and blowing them out.  Everyone got turns to blow out candles, but Derrick got the most turns. He was so happy.

 The kids mostly just licked the frosting off the cake and ate the candy.  I threw away the bare pieces.  That's one reason I like buying cheap cake mix - I can throw it away without feeling like I need to eat it.

I helped everyone get cleaned off and then we went into the living room and gave Derrick his presents.  I'd bought him two train books.

He was so excited and looked at both of them for a long time.  

 Around 10:15, Courtney, Derricks speech therapist came for their last therapy session.  Now that Derrick is three he is no longer eligible for ECI.  Since we are moving I'm not going to worry about finding a new therapist until after we are settled in Alabama.  And even then I might just wait until he goes to pre-school in the fall.  We'll see.

Courtney has been a good therapist.  Derrick has always been really comfortable with her.  We are all going to miss her very much.

 The kids all had major sugar crashes during therapy.  They were all whiny and clingy and it was super annoying.  I also started feeling weird.  I was light headed and just felt weak.  I had been planning to take the kids to a park or something, but I didn't feel up to it.  So we just stayed home.  The kids had hot dogs for lunch (Derrick's favorite food).and then the kids played in the back yard while I wrote a letter to Brandon.

Later Derrick and Veronica both took naps and I did too.  Charlotte and Lydia entertained each other.  (They are so good together.)

I woke up feeling better, but Derrick woke up super grumpy.  For a while there is was just like his birthday last year.  Finally I got him to tell me that he wanted to watch Dumbo (bum-boh) so I turned that on with Netflix.  He calmed down for that.

Later in the evening we had a visit from some of the Young Women in our ward.  Yesterday one of their leaders asked if they could come do service for me.  Of course I said yes.  I had them wash my walls and windows.  One of them did my dishes, and another weeded my front flower garden.  It was super nice.

 Then they did even more service by helping to eat the rest of the birthday cake.  That was great.  

After they left I put the kids to bed.  Derrick went down easily, but later I heard him crying.  He'd gotten his arm stuck in the bars of his crib (which he still hasn't tried to climb out of yet).  I got him free and then rocked him in the rocking chair for a while.  He liked that and smiled at me with his dimple showing smile.  I thought about how it so many ways he is my hardest child.  He's difficult to understand and he gets frustrated easily.  But in so many other ways he's my easiest child.  If you know what he likes he is easy to make happy.

A few weeks ago he started mimicking me when I said "I love you."  I put him back into his bed and my heart melted when he repeated, "I-you."  No matter how old he gets he'll always be my little boy.

Easter Week 2015

We are in kind of a funny limbo right now.  On one hand we are moving VERY soon.  On the other hand there isn't a lot I can do yet for the move.  The moving company will take care of packing everything so I don't need to worry about that at all.  And anything I clean now will most likely have to be cleaned again.  

So I've been focusing on de-junking.  I'm pretty good at decluttering on a regular basis, but the upcoming move has spurred me on to really get rid of a lot of stuff.   It's bee really nice to get rid of things.  Basically my criteria for getting rid of something boils down to:  Is is broken?  Have we used it in the 2 years we've lived here? and Have we out grown it?  

On thing that we got rid of was our new slide that came with the swing set.  The kids had a lot of fun with it, but it was really unstable.  It tipped over with Veronica on it at least three times.  So that earned it a spot on our curb. Here are the kids having fun with it before it was exiled. 

Last week I forgot to mention how well my kids did at church.  Which is a shame because they did AMAZING.  We've had one of the young women sitting with us, but I suspected that we didn't need her.  She wasn't able to sit with us last week and so I tested out my theory.  We made it though the whole meeting without anyone's help.  Charlotte did have to go to the bathroom one time, but she and Lydia were able to walk there reverently together.  But other than that we were all on the bench the whole time and being mostly well behaved.  I was kind of in shock.

Charlotte has wanted to go to McDonalds for a while, so we did that on either Monday or Tuesday.  The kids were really well behaved there too.  When we went outside to the playground Derrick surprised me by going up into the play structure and sliding down the giant twisty slide.  He's been too afraid to do that before.   

I spent HOURS going through all the clothes that the kids have out grown.  The twins have so many clothes and there is no way Veronica could wear them all.  I think they had over 30 pairs of pants/shorts in the 3T size alone. So I winnowed that down.  Veronica will still have a lot of clothes, but at least the amounts aren't overly excessive anymore. The pile of boxes on the left is all the clothes that I'm hanging on to.  The boxes on the right are the ones that found new owners.

Charlotte found a red hat and put together an all red outfit to go with it.

Veronica wanted to take her picture with Charlotte.  She looks up to her sisters so much.

This picture is one of the reasons I wanted this swing set.  All the kids can swing together at the same time.  It's so nice to not have to keep track of whose turn it is to swing.

This kids have learned how to climb this thingy at the school play ground.  Charlotte and Lydia can get back down, but Derrick can't.  He cries until I come get him. 

The construction crew took down the plastic fence that was around the site of our old play ground.  The kids like playing in the bark chips.  

On Thursday we were on our way to story time when Charlotte asked me what the craft was going to be that week.  I realized that it was going to tbe Easter Activity.  I couldn't remember if we needed to bring Easter Baskets and I didn't want to go back to get them anyway so I told Charlotte and Lydia they could use my purse.  So they shared that while looking for Easter Eggs.  It worked out really well.  (Derrick and Veronica just wanted to leave and so they cried during the whole hunt.)

We've kind of given up on little school lately, but the twins wanted to do it at least once this week.  Charlotte had fun coloring in her whole paper.  I was really proud of her.  Back when we started little school it was like pulling teeth to get her to even color in all the letters. She has so much more focus now.

On Friday we got in the car and headed down to my sister's house in Houston for the weekend.  Lindsey's husband John recently bought ducks.  Charlotte and Lydia were so excited about the ducks.

They both were wearing yellow dresses so we had a little impromptu Easter photoshoot. 

Charlotte wants to be a farm girl so bad.  A week or so ago I was talking with my friend Ashley her plans for her future house.  Ashley wants to raise farm animals.  She was telling me all her plans.  I jokingly said that I should have Charlotte come live with her for a summer when she turns 12.  Charlotte overheard me and wanted to know why I wanted to send her away.  I said, "Its so you can learn to be a farm girl."  And Charlotte said, "But I already know how."  It was super cute.

Lindsey also had a new trampoline.  This was so great.  Usually the kids are bouncing off the walls when we get together.  It was nice that they could go outside and get all their energy out. Derrick loved jumping.

He also liked putting sand into the ducks' water.

It was a little tricky getting all the kids to sleep.  It did happen eventually.  I like this picture of my three older kids all sharing the guest bed.

As usual Charlotte had a really fun time playing with Gretta.  She loves to fill up Gretta's water and food bowls.

Here are all the kids jumping on the trampoline.  Even Veronica could climb up on the chair that the kids used as a ladder.

On Saturday we were able to watch the LDS church's General Conference over the internet.  It was good to listen to the messages.  In the afternoon we went to visit a family friend.  Carol Snowden was my 7th grade TLC teacher.  She taught the cooking/sewing part of that class.  She also taught my life skills class in 8th grade.  Over the next 8 years each of my 4 siblings had at least one of her classes.  She's one of the few teachers that taught all 5 of us.  

Through the miracle of social media I've been able to stay in contact with her over the years.  She came to my wedding reception and gave me a beautiful red table cloth that I still use.  She also came to my baby shower when I had the twins and gave us pink and yellow crib sheets.  I think about her every time I put those sheets on the beds.  Later she hired Brandon to do some repairs in her home.  This was when Brandon was deciding to join the military.  Ms Snowden gave him some positive feedback about that decision. 

She has a daughter who lives in the same area as Lindsey.  Recently Ms Snowden decided to join her daughter in Texas.  She moved into her new home just a few weeks ago.  She invited Lindsey and I over for a visit.  We had a great time getting together and catching up.  

Back in Jr High she'd told my class that one of her favorite things a student ever said was, "Maybe we should have made toast."  I cross stitched that quote and gave it to her as a present at the end of the school year.  My little cross stitch hung in her classroom for years and years until she retired.  When we went to visit her on Saturday I was touched that she'd hung my cross stitch up in her kitchen.  

Since Ms Snowden's house is small and full of fragile things we only spent a few minutes there.  We spent most of our time at her daughter's house a few blocks away.  The kids thought they had gone to toy heaven.  Derrick was thrilled about the train and spent the whole time trying to drive his super long train around the table.

I was so glad that we had the chance to visit with Ms Snowden.  I'm seriously so grateful for the way that technology helps connect people.  I know that lots of people claim that social media makes people more isolated, but I feel like it helps me be more social.  I honestly don't know what I'd do with all my online friends.  (If you are reading this then that means you.)

In the evening Lindsey watched my kids so I could go shopping for a dress to wear when Brandon graduates.  I found the perfect one at Ross and I am so excited to wear it when I pin Brandon.  Pinning your husband's new rank onto him is a big deal to military spouses, and I intend to savor the moment.

On Sunday we had an Egg hunt in the morning.  The kids all waited with excitement while Lindsey hid the eggs.

And then they went out to find them all.

Derrick and Veronica didn't really care to pick up the eggs, but Charlotte and Lydia were into the hunt.

Rocklond ended up with the most.  He shared some of it with Derrick and Veronica.

They liked the candy.  Derrick was funny with the candy.  He wanted me to bite his robin eggs in half before he would eat them.  He'd hand them to me and say, "Help."

Conference started soon after the egg hunt.  Lindsey got out lots of craft supplies for the kids.

Veronica was just too cute.  All the kids got candy necklaces.  Veronica just wore hers without eating it.  Later I noticed it had disappeared.  I think one of the other kids took it and ate it.

Veronica loved playing with Gretta.  She'd pat her and say, "Hi, Hi, Hi." and "Dah-gee" and "Rarrr." and "Oohhh." (She picked that last one up from Derrick.)

Derrick spent most of the afternoon trying to fall asleep.  He tried various locations, before cuddling up to me on the couch while I took a quick nap during the last session of conference.

Lindsey had invited some friends over for an Easter Dinner.  They came over after conference and we had a FEAST.  It was like "Thankgiving -lite" and was so good.

After dinner I got what I'd been waiting for all day - an hour long phone call from Brandon. I haven't been able to talk to him in almost two weeks so it was great to hear his voice.  He's busy, but doing well.  He says it's pretty easy compared to Infantry Basic Training. Here are a few pictures that came from the Spouces page that I belong to.

Since he brought his camera and his computer he is one of the assistant historians for his group.  He often takes pictures of the things they do. 

His group helped out at an Easter Activity on post.  (If we'd been there he wouldn't have been allowed to talk to us.)

 Another one of him taking pictures.

Here is his group running.

He's the second guy on right in this picture.  He says he's been trying to eat really healthy and that has resulted in at least 10 lbs lost so far.  He's curious to see how skinny he gets before this is over.

It was 8:00 when I got off the phone.  The kids were all being surprisingly good, and I was tempted to stay at Lindsey's house.  But we had some commitments for the next morning so I decided we should go home like I planned.  We'll go back to Lindsey's house one more time before we leave Texas so it was easy to leave knowing we'll be back really soon.

Yesterday was kind of a blah day.  We all kind of had post-Easter depression.  Charlotte was in a good mood most of the day though.  She wanted to wear this dress because it was fancy - nevermind the fact that it's a 24 month size.  She wanted me to take her picture with her "cute little baby in a basket", and her Book of Mormon.

I planned some bulbs last fall as an experiment.  I was happy to see that we had a daffodil bloom.

And a tulip too.  These bulbs are from my garden at my parents' house.  It's nice to know that they can stay here and make this place beautiful after I've moved away.

Charlotte took this selfy by pushing the camera button and trying to turn super fast.  It actually turned out really cute.

Well that's about everything for last week.  This week should be pretty interesting. Derrick turns 3 tomorrow.  I have a feeling that as soon as that's over, and I can start focusing solely on the move, that this whole gigantic life change is going to feel a lot more real.  

And of course I'll keep you updated through everything.