Wherein Joseph psychoanalyzes his motivation

Yesterday morning I was cooking breakfast for Joseph and Samuel.  We were getting Joseph ready for school and out of the blue, he starts to talk about something that must have been pressing on his mind.  I have dropped Joseph off at school a few times.  Each time it has been rough because he starts to cry and won't stop.  It has been frustrating, to say the least, and I didn't understand why he could go from being happy to being so upset, especially because he is fine when he leaves on the bus.  Well, back to the breakfast table.  Joseph stated out of the blue, "I know why I cry when you drop me off at school.  It is because I feel like you are leaving me, but when I take the bus, it is like I am leaving you."  I guess the thought of me leaving him hurts him, so it is better when he does the leaving on the bus. 

Joseph quote

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Rankin last weekend.  We were eating dinner on Sunday before we came home.  We were talking about church and what we learned.  At church Samuel was being fussy, so I took him to the mother's lounge to sit with him towards the end of sacrament.  I guess after I left sacrament meeting, Grandpa and Joseph were giggling at pictures that they were drawing together.  They were drawing pictures of family members and when it came time to draw Aunt Chrissy, Joseph drew an actual ant and said "Ant Chrissy."  They were having a grand ole time.  Anyways, back to dinner.  Before prayer Grandpa was telling Joseph that they needed to repent because they should have been more reverent in sacrament meeting.  Joseph had been learning about the steps for baptism during his class.  Well when Grandpa said they needed to repent, Joseph said, "No I don't.  I am not 8 yet."  Everyone at the table started to laugh.  It was funny because technically he is right.  Grandpa laughed the loudest.  :)

Multiply life by the power of 2

Happy 10th anniversary to my wonderful and handsome husband!!

10 years together is a crazy thought. 
10 years of ups and downs and crazy turns.
10 years of adventures both bad and good.
10 + moves under our belts.
10 years ago we became husband and wife.
10 years, 2 kids, 1 family together forever. 

I love you Joe.  :)

About Samuel

Samuel is almost 4 years old.  He is such a fun and challenging little boy.  He likes to talk a lot.  He is really good at sentences but still struggles with his L sound.  So he says things like "wegs (legs)", "fawing (falling)", "I wike (like)", "siwwy (silly)" and other things.  He will grab books and sit down and look at the pictures.  He knows his colors and shapes and can count to 11 (random number) by himself, but with help he can get to 20.  Samuel also loves to dance and sing.  He dances a lot.  I will catch him randomly singing made up songs.

He is a great builder.  He loves to build with blocks and makes some pretty impressive structures.  Samuel uses both his right hand and his left hand to do things, though he favors his left hand.  Sometimes he will color or draw with both hands at the same time.  We have practiced some letters and he likes to mark them off once he has drawn them.  He doesn't always recognize them, so we are working on that. 

Samuel loves the outdoors.  Yesterday he told me, "I love nature mommy."  He does.  He loves plants and trees.  He is deathly afraid of animals on the loose.  I guess that means mostly dogs and cats that he sees around the neighborhood. 

He loves little toys.  If it is small he likes it.  He got the Angry Birds Star Wars At-At Attack for Christmas and loves that the figures you shoot are smaller than his hand.  He loves his trash pack toys. 

Samuel loves his big brother.  It bothers Joseph sometimes because Samuel wants to be on the top bunk with him.  Whatever Joseph has, Samuel wants it too.  We have duplicate toys because we know that if Joseph gets it, Samuel will want it as well.  He is getting super excited to turn 4. 

Samuel also likes to challenge what he is told.  We have mostly broken the spitting fit habit he had, but sometimes when he is super mad, he will drool in his mouth excessively and let a little bit wander dangerously close to outside of his mouth.  He needs naps, but if he has one, he won't sleep till late and will get out of bed a number of times.  I think he also has night terrors on occasion.  He will wake up crying, shaking, and sweating.  He will ask me to pray that he won't have any dreams. 

The other night he woke up scared.  We had prayed that he wouldn't have any dreams or good dreams if he did dream.  He said, "Heavenly Father didn't give me good dreams."  I explained that Heavenly Father woke him up from his bad dream so that it would stop.  We then sang some songs and I said another prayer with him for better dreams.  I also talked to him about thinking about things that made him happy as he fell asleep.  When he woke up the other night from a bad dream he said, "Heavenly Father woke me up." 

Some of his favorite foods are:
Spinach with white (ranch) dressing
Broccoli
Hot dogs
Bologna
Nuggets
Pistachios
Almonds
Pears
Red Apples
Green Apples
Red apples
Gum

His favorite color is bwack (black) and rainbow.

His favorite show is Funniest Home Videos and Shaun the Sheep.

He loves to play with little people (my old toys). 

We love Samuel.  It is hard to believe that my baby is going to be 4. 

Samuel quote

As we went over a hill that tickled our bellies:

"My stomach squeezed my heart."

Boys and Girls

Joseph is getting so big.  He is very social and in my opinion, a very cute kid.  It seems like some of the little girls have taken notice.  Joseph does not like to talk about this kind of thing because he does not want to be teased about it.  I debate about whether I should blog about it, but I want to remember what he said.  Hmmmm.  I will still think about it.  Meanwhile, I need to write what he said down somewhere so I won't forget it.  :)

Wherein I broke his heart...

I don't enjoy washing dishes, but I know I need to get them done.  Of course, Samuel has a built in radar that lets him know if I am out of sight, I am probably in the kitchen cleaning, so he hones in and wants to help.  He LOVES to wash dishes.  Washing dishes is a longer process with my little one, so sometimes I try to get it done when he is asleep or otherwise occupied.  Yesterday I put off washing dishes until I knew Joseph would be home so they could play together and I could get it done quickly.  Samuel suggested during the day that we needed to do it before Joseph got home because, "Joseph will say, "I want to help mommy," and I don't want him to help."  Well, I was feeling the same way.  So my sneaky ploy worked and I washed everything.  

At family home evening, it was late and we told the boys it was bed time after the snack.  Samuel said, "But we need to wash dishes."  I cringed inside because I knew he wanted to help, but I had done it on my own.  I told him that I had done them.  The look on his face broke my heart.  I felt so awful that I had done them without him.  He looked at me with hurt in his eyes and asked, "you already did them?"  I said yes and that we would have more to wash tomorrow and he could help me.  Damage done.  I think I broke his little heart.  :(  I had to distract him quickly so he wouldn't cry.