Seeing green

Yesterday I washed all of our dishes. I put a load in the dishwasher and had a little helper in the form of Samuel. Joseph was coloring in the other room. Samuel often puts his toys and other things into the dishwasher. I found a couple of crayons and removed them. Samuel came over a few different times and took things out of the dishwasher. I found a stray crayon and took it out. I finished loading and put the dishes to wash. Fast forward a few hours later...I needed a clean bowl and opened my dishwasher. I noticed that my measuring cups were green. I looked at a frying pan, covered in green. Plates covered in green. Culprit: green crayon. Evidence: empty paper wrapper plus all of my green dishes. Now I need to motivate myself to rewash (by hand) all of the dishes in there. Definitely not happening tonight.

Random tidbits

On Sunday, the primary had their program. Joseph had worked on his line, "I can show reverence at home by praying." On Sunday, when it was his turn, he went up to the podium and the sister tried to help him. He looked over at her and then said, "I don't need help." When he turned the microphone, he started to talk and then turned to her and said, "I can't remember." It was a funny moment that made people in the congregation laugh. Also, we sat in a pew on the side and to the front. In front of us was a sister with 2 little boys and behind us was a couple with one son, probably almost 10. One of the 2 little boys has some disabilities, and at one point during the meeting, he grabbed Joe's hair and tried to grab Samuel. The little boy behind us started hitting his parents and yelling no. It made for an interesting meeting trying to keep the boys from the little boy's hands in front of us.

Yesterday we went to look at a fridge and then were going to look at some cabinets. I was debating out loud on the way to drive, and I said, "I will take the freeway." Here is the following conversation:

Mommy: "I will take the freeway."
Joseph: "I wonder what kind of free stuff they will give."
Mommy: "What free stuff?"
Joseph: "On the freeway."
Mommy (laughing): "They don't give free stuff on the freeway. That isn't what it is."
Joseph: "Then what is a freeway."

Samuel is talking more. Yesterday he gripped our bread and started to say "bed, bed, bed" over and over again. Too bad it wasn't good and I couldn't give it to him. He is also very attached to a little car that looks like a pig from the movie Cars. He hides it and then laughs when we find it and give it back to him. I am also beginning to think that his wake up time is changing. No more 8 in the morning. It is now 6 or 7. Yuck. :)

This morning...

Joseph: "Thank you trees." (said as we were driving around)
Mommy: "Why are you saying thank you to the trees?"
Joseph: "Because they give us the air we breathe."

Cuties

Samuel has finally started to say "amen" after prayers. It is cute to hear him say it. I was playing a game and kept saying "oh man" and he repeated it. I wonder if he wondered why we didn't fold our arms. We moved Joseph into Samuel's room, so we have a new bedtime routine. We read a couple of books, and I rock Samuel in a chair and sing hymns, then we say a prayer together. For Joseph it used to be just books and prayer, and for Samuel songs and prayer. Joseph seems to enjoy the songs and requests songs at night. His favorite for me to sing right now is "Siembra Gozo (Scatter Sunshine)." He requests it every night. Last night he even tried singing along even though he doesn't know Spanish. It was so cute. I sang it a second time for him to hear the words and try some more.

He doesn't want to learn Spanish. He says that he wants to be English. At his preschool, we are having Spanish lessons and I talked about why it is important for him to try and speak the language. He will learn, even if it is reluctantly at the moment. Joe asked him why he doesn't want to learn Spanish and he said, "Because it will make me turn brown." I have no idea where he got this from. I remember when I was little I would get mad at one of my aunts because she would tell me that my babies were going to be super dark when they were born. I don't know what goes on in his head, but that definitely took me by surprise.

Exhausted

Joseph got out of bed around 10 and puked. He kept puking so I moved him to our room to be closer to the bathroom. After not making it to the bathroom, I decided that rather than wake up Joe with Joseph calling for me often, I would move to the living room. As I moved the blankets for Joseph to sleep on to the floor, at midnight I heard Samuel whimper and then he started to cry. He then started to cry louder and I knew what had happened. He had vomited in his crib, on his pillow, in his hair...ewwww. Anyways, I took him to the bathroom and he vomited into the toilet. I gave him a bath and put clean clothes on him, he vomited all over them, so he had another bath. I just wrapped him in a towel. Meanwhile, Joseph had to vomit a few more times and he didn't want to be alone in the bathroom, but Samuel didn't want to be put down, so I was carrying Samuel, covering Joseph's eyes for him so he wouldn't see the vomit in the toilet, as he is crying because it came out his nose and Samuel is crying because he isn't comfortable and feeling well. By one in the morning, I was just hoping to survive the night. I didn't want to wake Joe because I knew he needed to be up early for work. Joseph finally stopped vomiting around 1:30 in the morning and fell asleep. Samuel wasn't so lucky and puked on and off till almost 5 in the morning. I was just grateful that it came less often as the early morning progressed because I was able to sleep a little. I had to hold him while I pulled off his covers and pillow case and load the laundry. The boys are both napping (it is 6 p.m.), but I don't want to wake them. Poor kiddos. At least they are not throwing up at the moment. As for me, I am exhausted, but I did get the kitchen cleaned.

Misheard

After listening to a song called "Breathe" by Anna Nalick, Joseph exclaimed, "She's right mom...we need to just read."

Early morning (Saturday) and Sunday

Saturday
My day has already started. Samuel has been awake for over an hour. I am tired and it will be a long day. At least I cleaned the dishes last night and the kitchen is clean, so now what to do with the rest of the day. He woke up 5:30 in the morning and refused to nap. Joseph was up at around 7:30, so I decided to hit a few garage sales to see if there was anything good. Samuel fell asleep in the car at around 8 in the morning.

It is also the 9th year of the World Trade Center attacks. I watched a power point and was amazed at how close it still feels. It is a shame that we aren't more united as a country now like we were then. My heart goes out to people who lost loved ones in the tragedy. It reminds of the book I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It is the story of a boy who lost a father in the attacks. The author does manipulate a reader's emotions, but it brings the heartache and fear to surface of an event that transformed a nation.

Sunday
Today was regional conference. We heard from Elder Snow, Sister Beck, Elder Holland, and President Packer. Elder Snow's message about spirituality and remembering them and the need to "remember to renew" our experiences was great. Sister Beck's message was that we can be doing better. Elder Holland talked about the trials of our days and Elder Packer stressed faith. All in all, a very good conference.

Samuel was having a rough time during the conference and didn't want to sit still. After lunch today, he was quiet in the bedroom and I wondered why. Joe went to check on him. He had found an ant and was looking at him walk around. Every once in awhile, he would put his hand near it and smile. My little observant scientist.

Tonight was rough for Samuel. He woke up around 11:30 and didn't fally back asleep till after 1:30 in the morning. Yay for being tired. :P

This last week I was able to visit with one of my mission companions who is visiting her family in Utah. It was fun to hang out and meet her darling little girls. It is crazy that so much time has passed between my mission and where I am today. She looked amazing and I do wish that she and a few of my other companions lived closer so we could hang out.

My little skeletons

Joseph liked that he and Samuel have the same skeleton pajamas. They were pretending to "walk like zombies" in the hall.

Randomness

Quote: "I want to eat healthy...just like daddy."

So the other day I was cleaning, and I decided that I would grab a Sunkist. It has been a long time since I have had one and I was thirsty. After opening the can, I took a large sip and gagged. It took everything I had not to spit it out. I forced myself to swallow. I couldn't drink anymore. Why? Because it reminded me of the glucose drink they have you drink during pregnancy. It tasted just like it and each time I had to drink it (2 times with Joseph and 2 times with Samuel), I felt sick the rest of the day. Well, Sunkist is now in the same category as that glucose drink and I will never drink it again. I shudder just thinking about it. Ewwww.

I taught nursery today. It took everything I had to keep the kids focused. I finally gave up trying to get them to listen to scriptures and found they focused well when we sang a song about creation with signs. I decided to teach them signs for different animals and the sounds they make as part of their lesson on creation. They really enjoyed it.

Samuel has started folding his arms for prayer. He won't say amen yet, but when we say it is time for prayer, he gets ready. It's cute. At night, I rock him and sing to him before bed. When he is ready to lay down, often he will fold his arms for a prayer...my hint to say it and let him rest.

We moved Joseph into the same room as Samuel. We had to reiterate to him the conditions of moving him into the room: 1) no getting out of bed at night, 2) no crying or calling out for mommy or daddy, 3) no playing after we put him to bed. Joseph was so excited to be moved in with Samuel. The first night, after they had been in bed a couple of hours, he started to cry. In return, it woke up Samuel and he started to cry. Joseph was afraid we would move him out of the room. Yesterday we went to Lowe's and found a couple of night lights. Joe told him they also worked to zap ghosts. Right now the boys are in the room playing. Joseph did tell me that he and Samuel were going to play in the morning when they woke up.

We are still trying to find the right house for our family. Hopefully we will get one soon. :)