Pants are for Girls

Overall Ty is doing really well with his potty training.  He pees in the potty independently about 98% of the time now, which we are very happy about.  It's #2 (aka "woo" at our house) that is really keeping him from claiming the "potty trained" title.  For some reason, he is afraid to do it in the potty.  He will go off by himself when the time comes, do the deed in his pants, and then take the messy pants off wherever he is.

Yesterday after dinner Ty was outside playing in the backyard while I helped Jacob work out some kinks with his electronics.  After I was done, I looked outside and saw Ty-- naked from the waist down-- standing at our back fence and chatting with our neighbor who was weeding nearby.  Mortified, I called him in, cleaned him up, and got some pants back on him.  Shortly thereafter it was time for me to put him to bed.  As I was getting him ready for bed, I heard the back door open and shut.  After Ty was finally in bed, I went to find Jacob.  He was in the back yard-- completely naked-- getting a kick out of watching his shadow jump up and down when he did... and our neighbor was still out weeding.  I don't even want to know what he and his wife think about our crazy family!

Snapshot of Our Kids

Benjamin-- still enamored with basketball, though with some leaning towards soccer now that the soccer season has resumed.  Chess is also high on his list of favorite things to do, and he is becoming quite the player.  He defeats me almost every time now and has beaten his dad a few times as well.  He is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his ex-BYU-chess-club-president-current-Harvard-Law-student uncle in a couple of weeks and hoping to learn some killer chess techniques.  He considers himself the most picked-on kid in the world because he is the "ONLY" kid he knows who has chores, has to practice every day, and has a bed time.

Jacob-- still enamored of his iPad (which DID make a miraculous recovery after its bath!).  With the warm weather, he has decided that he likes going outside to watch people play basketball or to swing with his iPad.  He also discovered Gramps and Grandma Groneman's trampoline and fell in love!  He wants others to jump with him and will drag people to the tramp if no one else is jumping.

Ty-- still our charming trouble-maker.  He loves digging for worms, catching bugs, using his tools (thanks, Auntie Buffalo!), coloring, reading books, playing with Legos, playing with trucks and tractors, and playing with friends and cousins.  We learned that his sporadic overly-aggressive behavior with other kids could be due (at least in part) to his hyperphenylalaninemia.  High levels of phenylalanine apparently lead to aggression and behavior problems.  We are in the process of working with a doctor and dietitian in the metabolic clinic to see how we can best cut back on his protein intake to try to keep his levels in the proper range.  I'm crossing my fingers that his aggression will be cut back, too!  He is doing really well with peeing in the potty, but we have yet to get a #2 in there.  He hides to do his business and then once it is done immediately drops his drawers (no matter where he is) and continues playing.  We are still working on it...

 

A Close Call-- Vegas Style

Brigham had an oral boards review course in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to go with him to turn it into a mini-vacation of sorts.  We were excited to see a show, and a friend told us about these kiosks where you can buy discount tickets.  As soon as we arrived in Vegas-- before going to our hotel or anything else-- Brigham dropped me off at one such kiosk to scope out the tickets left for that evening.  We'd seen a Cirque du Soleil show in Baltimore and really enjoyed it, and we were hoping to see a different one in Vegas.  As I checked the board displaying which discount tickets were still available, I was relieved to see that one of the four Cirque du Soleil shows still had tickets-- a show called Zumanity.  I asked one of the employees about the tickets, and he told me that they only had a few tickets left for that evening-- and all were in the "audience participation section."  I imagined us being called up to help the performers with their acrobatics and wasn't particularly excited by the image.  Brigham arrived shortly thereafter, and I explained the situation.  He said, "What?  Are you afraid of being called out of the audience to participate?"  I said, "Well, yes!"  He said, "I'm not!  I think it would be awesome!"  The employee was listening to our conversation and stepped in to offer a solution by saying, "Well, we have tickets to other shows like Zumanity if you don't want to participate."  He handed Brigham a pamphlet for some kind of "peep show", and we were both  horrified.  I said, "Oh!  We don't want to see THAT!" and he said, "Well, it's the same kind of show as Zumanity!"  Brigham has always teased me a little for my naivete, but not even he saw that one coming!  Talk about a close call!  Without the "audience participation section"(I don't even want to know!) clause tacked on to the Zumanity tickets, we probably would have innocently bought the $100 non-refundable tickets and only realized our mistake once seated in the show!  We had no idea that Cirque du Soleil did anything but clean acrobatic shows!  After driving around in Vegas for awhile we saw enough Zumanity billboards to KNOW that we didn't want to see it!

We ended up seeing  Cirque du Soleil "Viva Elvis".  It wasn't our first choice, but it was a really fun show and a lot more up our alley!

Keeping it Clean

Yesterday I was doing my hair when Benjamin came in and informed me, "Mom, Jacob is putting his iPad under the water in the bathroom!" (It is amazing just how much trouble can be gotten into in the time it takes me to do my hair!)  I went running to the bathroom and found Jacob just as excited as can be to be watching his show in the sink with water streaming across it.  I quickly snatched it and hurried to dry it off, but alas-- the damage had been done and it wouldn't turn back on.  I'd heard about the uncooked rice trick, so we quickly put it in a bag of rice, crossed our fingers, and said our prayers.  Today we took it out, and much to our joy, it turned on!  It still has some quirks (brain damage from being underwater too long?), but we are thrilled to have it working at all.  Perhaps Jacob was just trying to give us a nice Easter allegory... if so, it was pretty effective!

Speaking of Easter, the boys have had some great times the last couple of days.  Yesterday morning they had an egg hunt in our house, enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Dastrup, and later in the afternoon they had a treasure hunt that led them to some soccer goals for the back yard.  Today we had Easter dinner at Grandma and Gramps' house, another Easter egg hunt with cousins, and dyed eggs.  We love Easter and all that it stands for!

Fact!

Today I was a little disturbed to see a 60% on one of Benjamin's worksheets that he brought home.  As I looked more closely, I saw that he only missed one out of four total questions.  Then I read the question:

Which of these is a fact?
A. Ice cream is delicious.
B. Carrots are satisfying.
C. Everyone loves french fries.
D. Beets have vitamins.

Benjamin marked "A".  I'd say he's one smart kid! :)

How I Know

Serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints some 12 years ago, I found that different parts of our message really resonated with different people.  For many it was the plan of salvation-- knowing where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.  For many others it was the idea of eternal families-- the possibility of being with our families not just in this life but in the life to come if we do our part.  For some it was the fact that we have a living prophet and apostles to guide our church-- just like Christ's church anciently.  For others it was the fact that the Book of Mormon testifies of God's love for all of his children and not just those in the Jerusalem area.  The list goes on and on.  Each person's life experience shaped which part of our message would speak to them the most.

For me, after growing up as a member of the Church my entire life, all the different parts of our message just felt right and it was a joy to share them with the people of Bolivia.  I knew and I know that the gospel that is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is right, and that the Church is Christ's restored from it's original form.  I've known it basically my whole life, but from time to time something comes along that makes it's truthfulness resonate in my heart even more powerfully.  One of those things happened a few months ago and has continued to fill my heart so full that here it is just spilling across my blog!

Obviously, my whole life has been completely reshaped with the arrival of Jacob Dax-- my sweet "special needs" boy-- six years ago.  This school year he started attending Jordan Valley School-- a school just for children with special needs.  The kids attend there from kindergarten until they turn 22, so it is an elementary, junior high, and high school all rolled into one.  From previous posts you may know how much I love the school itself.  The thing that started to fill my heart was when I noticed a tiny Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints seminary building adjacent to the school.  At first I was surprised.  A seminary building at a special needs school??  How much of the Church's doctrine could these kids really be expected to understand?  And then it hit me hard:  It didn't matter.  What mattered was that they had the chance!  Through inspired Church leaders, Christ was once again leaving the ninety and nine and going after the one-- the one that so many might think wasn't worth going after.   Seeing the Church's efforts to make the gospel accessible to every living person no matter what the obstacle, amount of time, or resources makes my heart burn with the knowledge that this is Christ's true church!  Translations of the Bible and Book of Mormon into hundreds of languages including American Sign Language and Braille speak of His love for each person and a desire that each one of us, regardless of ability or disability, return to Him one day.  I love that, and I love knowing it!

How grateful I am to have Christ's gospel in my life!  It really is my anchor in this crazy world.

Ty-phoon Turns Three!

Recently Ty said good-bye to the terrible twos and slipped on the mantle of responsibility that falls upon the shoulders of all three-year-olds.  Gone are the days of it being socially acceptable to wet one's pants.  One is expected to drink from big boy cups, sleep in big boy beds, stop tantruming, and wipe one's own bottom.

As Ty learned on his birthday, there are also some upsides to being an older man-- namely, going out with girls.  Ty spent the day while his brothers were at school with his best friend, Maddie.  We went to the Bean Museum at BYU...

...out to lunch at McDonalds...

 ...and to the Paleontology Museum at BYU. 

 Ty and Maddie had a riot together.

 Not long after he said good-bye to Maddie, both sets of grandparents came up for a dinner of mac 'n cheese.  (Nuggets AND mac 'n cheese in one day.  Does it get any better than that?)  Then came the presents.  He was so thrilled with each one that he didn't want to open the next!

How I love my little wild boy!