Kevin got to talk to my dad on the phone last night before he went to bed, and he had a lot to say. He told him all about TV shows and movies he has seen lately and places he has been. Ryan and I were cracking up at some of the things he was saying. Then came this gem:

Kevin: So, we have a new vacuum. Yeah, it's a white vacuum. It's just so we can vacuum the poo off the floor.
(Ryan and I burst out laughing at this point.)
Kevin (to us): Guys, stop being silly. Don't . . . just stop being funny, okay? Sorry, Grandpa, they're just kidding.
My dad: They're kissing?

memory lane: my baptism dress

When I was in Junior Primary I probably looked at pictures of children being baptized many times. The girls were always in pretty white dresses. So when I imagined myself being baptized at age eight, that was how I expected it to be.

When I was about to turn eight, I was talking to my mom one day about how excited I was to get baptized. I told her, "I can just see myself stepping into the water in a beautiful white dress . . . " At this point my mom interrupted me to clarify that nowadays everyone gets baptized in white jumpsuits. I didn't know what that meant, but from her description I concluded that it was plain and not especially feminine (they're basically white one-piece shirt/pants things with a zipper on the front). The idea was pretty repulsive to me. I was troubled because I really wanted to get baptized, but I also wanted to look beautiful like the girls in the pictures. Years later, my mom told me she wasn't sure if I would consent to be baptized if I had to be baptized wearing one of these jumpsuits. (I'm pretty sure I would have wanted to get baptized anyway, but at the time the idea of the jumpsuits was a little disappointing to my romantic mind.)

My mom ended up making me a lovely white dress to be baptized in. I felt beautiful in it. It was a sacred and happy experience. I remember that after my dad baptized me I was filled with a sensation of joy and light. It was a feeling that I experienced again after I received the Endowment at the Ogden temple.

Oh, and since then I have worn white jumpsuits many times when I went to do baptisms for the dead at the temple. It's true that they're not very feminine, but they're sturdy, versatile, and functional.

The Poky Little Puppy--What Really Happened

Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. They wandered far away from home and climbed up a hill. When they got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves: One, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn't there. They looked all around the sides of the hill and couldn't see him, although they saw all sorts of other things like lizards and caterpillars. But when they looked down at the bottom of the hill they saw him running around and around. So they ran down the hill, tumble bumble, and asked him what in the world he was doing. "I smell something," he said. Then they all realized they could smell rice pudding cooking. So they all ran home.

As they approached the fence, the first four little puppies slipped under the fence as fast as they could because they were so excited about rice pudding. The poky little puppy was more cautious, and he noticed that he could see their mother's fur through the fence, so he held back so that he wouldn't get in trouble for digging the hole. He stopped and chatted with the neighbor dog for a while.

"So you're the little puppies who dig holes under fences!" their mother said. "No rice pudding for you! Go straight to bed!" So the four little puppies went to bed hungry.

The poky little puppy finally came home and slipped under the fence. He didn't know that the other puppies had been denied their rice pudding, but he did notice that there was plenty left, and he was very hungry, so he licked the bowl clean and went to bed, happy as a lark.

The next day the hole in the fence had been filled in, and there was a sign that said, "Don't ever dig holes under this fence!" But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence just the same and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. They decided to go back to the hill since they hadn't spent much time there the day before.

When they got to the top of the hill they counted themselves: One, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn't there. "Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?" they wondered. They looked all over the hill and saw some interesting things like spiders and grasshoppers, but they didn't see the poky little puppy. Then they saw him at the bottom of the hill, with one ear cocked up. So they ran down the hill, tumble bumble, and asked what he was doing. "I hear something," he said. "Chocolate custard!" they all cried. "Someone is spooning it into our bowls!" So they went running home, and apparently they hadn't learned their lesson, because the four little puppies dove through the hole in the fence without looking where they were going,, and there was their mother again. "So you're the little puppies who dig holes under fences!" she said. "No chocolate custard tonight! Go straight to bed!" So the four little puppies had to go to bed hungry, and they were very sad.

The poky little puppy figured their mother might be waiting again, so he held back and approached the fence with caution. He had to wait a while because she was standing at the kitchen window washing dishes and would see him slip under the fence, but when he had a chance he snuck into the yard and came inside. He saw the big bowl of chocolate custard and just couldn't help himself--he ate it all up, and went to bed, happy as a lark.

The next morning there was a sign by the fence that said, "Don't ever, ever dig holes under this fence!" But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence just the same and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. Once again, they ran to explore the hill. When they got to the top, they counted themselves: One, two, three, four. One little puppy wasn't there. "Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?" they wondered. For he certainly wasn't on top of the hill. They looked around on the sides of the hill and saw some other stuff, but no poky little puppy. But then they saw him at the bottom of the hill with his nose to the ground, and they ran down the hill, tumble bumble, to see what he was doing. "I see something," said the poky little puppy. Then they realized he was looking at a wild strawberry, and that reminded them that their mother was making them strawberry shortcake, so they ran home as fast as they could.

When the four little puppies slipped under the fence, their mother was there waiting again, and she said, "So you're the little puppies who dig holes under fences! No strawberry shortcake tonight! Go straight to bed!"

The four little puppies were getting desperate because they hadn't eaten anything for three days, so they snuck outside while they thought their mother wasn't looking and filled up the hole in the fence. They turned around and found their mother standing there, watching them proudly. "What good little puppies!" she said. "Come have some strawberry shortcake."

As usual, the poky little puppy took his time. He got pretty nervous when he realized his brothers and sisters were filling in the hole. He had to squeeze under a gap in the fence to get back home. He arrived home just in time to find his siblings licking up the last of the strawberry shortcake.

"Oh, dear! What a pity you're so poky!" their mother said. So the poky little puppy went to bed with no strawberry shortcake, feeling very sorry for himself and rather hurt that nobody thought to save any dessert for him. (Years later when he had puppies of his own he realized that his mother probably knew all along that he had secretly eaten the entire pan of rice pudding and the entire bowl of chocolate custard and therefore didn't need or deserve any strawberry shortcake.)

The next day there was a sign that said, "No desserts ever unless puppies never dig holes under this fence again!"

And the moral of the story is:

• Avoid doing sneaky things with siblings who aren't old enough to be sneaky without getting caught. If you do decide to do it, know how to bail out before it's too late.
• If you have a chance to eat dessert, do it, because they might decide to eat it while you are gone and forget to save some for you.
• Sometimes it's advantageous to be sneaky by yourself because then you don't have to share.
• In most cases Mom really does know you did it, even if she didn't actually catch you in the act.

Right?

(P.S. I still love the book, especially because of my childhood memories of reading it with my parents.)
(P.P.S. I was the poky little puppy.)

Psychic

The kids helped me make smoothies. We like to drink smoothies with straws, so everybody got a smoothie in a cup with a straw. I noticed that Heidi was having a hard time drinking from her straw because from the height where she was sitting the straw was too high, so she had to bend it when she sucked on it, which made it hard to get anything out. Then it occurred to me that I could just cut her straw to make it the right height for her. But then I realized that if I took her straw away to cut it she might get mad at me, so I decided to cut a different straw and give it to her, figuring that she would see the advantage of the shorter straw.

The idea was perfect, except Heidi was perfectly satisfied with her first straw and saw no reason to use a different one, so she handed it back to me. However, Kevin thought the straw was great and took it away. I gave it back to Heidi, still hoping that she would change her mind since she was now using her old straw like a spoon, which was really messy. She still wasn't interested.

So Kevin took the smaller straw back. Then he asked me to cut his original straw small as well. I knew that if I cut his straw he would probably throw a fit and say he didn't want me to cut it, so I said, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I want you to cut it."

Snip.

"NOOOOO! I don't want you to cut my straw! I want it bigger! I want you to make it bigger!"

I knew it.

The problem, of course, is that my psychic abilities don't always work. If Heidi had been excited about the functionality of her new, small straw, like I had predicted, things might have happened differently.

abandoned quarry Occoneechee Mountain State Park

Here are some of the pictures from when we visited the quarry. I will be studying the quarry in greater detail for a group project in one of my classes, so there may be more to come. They're not in any particular order.

Heidi rode in the backpack on Ryan's back while we walked out to the quarry, but once Ryan started boulder hopping he decided to take her off and we took turns keeping the kids out of trouble.

Kevin did a good job walking the whole way himself.

Here's a view showing most of the quarry. All of the boulders fell off the mountain in a landslide in 2001. Some of them are huge--like a couple of feet taller than Ryan.

Yes, it really does look pink. If you pull a piece off (which you can do with bare hands because it's so soft) you can see that it has white, red and black layers. The white is probably pyrophyllite and the rest probably has a lot of iron.

Here's a hand sample of that pink stuff. This is the broken off part, so you can see all the black and red that's inside.

Some interesting artwork.

Heidi was pretty excited to get to walk back part of the way by herself. Kevin had been pretty slow on the way down to the quarry, but by this point he got his second wind and we could barely keep up with him.

Did I mention Heidi was having a good time when we let her walk instead of ride?

Kevin and Heidi love rivers. Their favorite part was when we let them go up close to the Eno River, which flows past the bottom of the quarry, and throw sticks and rocks in (with close supervision).

cute pictures of Heidi

Recently I've gotten some cute pictures of Heidi.

She was having a fun time putting gas in Kevin's train while sitting inside this big plastic bin.

I love these last two. She has such sweet expressions on her face.

on the adorableness and cleverness of my dear children

There are cute pictures at the end of this post.

Kevin
"Oh, come on."

He loves describing things as a "BIG, FAT ______."

"Hardly." (He got this from Ryan.)

Kevin is making slow progress with learning to use the potty. For the past couple of weeks he has been wearing underwear except during naps and at night. The main problem we are encountering is that he has such a strong bladder that he can hold it in until nap time when he's in a diaper, and then after he gets up and we change him out of the dirty diaper he can hold it in until bedtime, which just doesn't seem healthy to me. It sounds like a recipe for a UTI. To give you an idea of how strong this kid's bladder is, today (4/1) he went at least eight hours without using the toilet at all, and finally Ryan nagged him enough that he said, "Fine! I'll just go in your bathroom." Ryan timed him and he peed for a whole minute. Not an exaggeration. Hopefully that will happen less and less, but I am slightly concerned. That's the main reason why I don't feel like I can declare that he is potty trained. We're trying to implement a sort of schedule so that we can say we always use the potty after lunch and before going to bed, and that seems to be helping somewhat. He has also apparently figured out simple addition. He gets one marshmallow for going #1 and two for going #2, so one time when he did both at once, he looked up at Ryan and said, "So I get two marshmallows for going poop and one for going pee. That's three marshmallows." (Apologies to my readers who are not moms and therefore may think this is way TMI.)

Kevin has been very interested in the story of the Atonement this Easter. He gets out the gospel art book and asks us to tell the stories that go with the pictures. It's been pretty neat to teach him about Christ's love for us and the hope that we have because of the atonement. He also likes to hear the story about Jonah.

Hoping to make tooth-brushing a little more pleasant, I told Kevin that we brush his teeth so we can find creepy-crawlies. So when I brush his teeth I do things like tell him I'm going to check in the back or under his tongue, and after brushing there I pull out the toothbrush and we check to see if we got any creepy-crawlies. I think he sort of enjoys it.

I also started telling Kevin some fairy tales. He loves Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. Sometimes I hear him telling the stories himself. I attempted to do this a year or so ago and it was not received well, so it was a relief when this time he was delighted with hearing stories. But then I forgot about the part where they want to hear the stories again and again and again and again and again. Still, it's fun.

Heidi
Heidi is also very interested in the potty, but unfortunately right now she has the order backwards. She forgets that you sit on the toilet before you go. She desperately wants to switch to underwear, but I just don't feel ready to take on potty training right now, especially when she's only 21 months old. Maybe this summer after classes are over. Her personality is very different from Kevin's, so maybe we'll be able to potty train her a little earlier. There is also a strong motivation to get her potty trained so the horrible diaper rashes will stop. The doctor prescribed nystatin for a couple of weeks, and it seemed to help, but there must be another problem because now the rashes are back.

She can climb out of her crib if it's next to Kevin's dresser, and she has successfully climbed into and out of the pack n play. She can also climb up onto the top bunk of the bunk bed at the ends--i.e. without the ladder. Recently one of her favorite games is to use the drawers to climb onto the counter in the kitchen and then pull all the spices out of the cupboard. I honestly think we're lucky she's never had a concussion. She loves to copy Kevin.

She repeats what we say when we help her with her prayers at night. Even Kevin still refuses to do that sometimes these days (and actually he is perfectly capable of saying his own prayers [or helping Heidi with her prayers]--he just insists on help).

Heidi can be very sensitive and dramatic. She has mastered a cry that will melt your heart. She rubs her eyes and whimpers or sniffles softly and puts out her lower lip. Sometimes she even sinks to the floor face down because she is so devastated. The thing is that it's usually an act, which means we generally stifle laughs when she does it.

The fire alarms in our building are really intense. They are really shrill and loud and set to the perfect frequency to make your body shake. It's quite awful. There was one day a few weeks ago when they decided to test the fire alarms (as we found out later--at the time I didn't know), and I was alone with the kids. Kevin was in a t-shirt and underwear and Heidi was in a t-shirt and diaper, so we weren't exactly well-equipped for going outside. As soon as the alarm sounded both of the kids freaked out and grabbed me and wouldn't get out of my lap, and the fire alarm was also having an awful effect on me (I'm not kidding when I say it makes your bones shake). So I was frantically trying to hurry and grab pants and socks and shoes and jackets and get the kids outside and meanwhile both of the kids were sobbing and wouldn't let go of me. Then just as we were about to go out the door it stopped. But the kids wouldn't get out of my lap for a good 20 minutes because they were so shaken. I kept repeating, "Yes, the fire alarm was scary, but it was just a test, and it's off now." Heidi still will often (a couple of times a day) stop what she's doing and look at you very seriously while saying or whispering, "Fire alarm. Scary. Test. On. Scary."

Kevin likes to use his duplo train set to make diggers and street sweepers. He made this street sweeper all by himself and asked me to take a picture.

In March I also became a quarter of a century old. Ryan made me a cake and bought me a Costco bag of pistachios. It was awesome.

We don't really do a lot of crafts or activities for most holidays, but this year Ryan decided to make the Easter chocolates that his family always made together for Easter when he was growing up. They didn't turn out pretty (we probably should have added more powdered sugar and frozen them before dipping in the chocolate), but they tasted amazing. I'm giddy just thinking about them. Try this recipe and make sure you have lots of friends to share them with, because the recipe makes about 3 million chocolates.