I haven't been in the blogging mood for awhile. I just don't know what to tell the world about my life. It can be difficult having an online journal, keeping it personal yet public. But these are some moments with the kids I wanted to remember for me. You might enjoy them too.

We've started trying to teach Maggie to sleep in her crib. She's been sleeping in her car seat for awhile because of her ongoing double ear infections. Last night she cried for a few minutes and then nodded off. When I went to check on her (make sure the blanket wasn't covering her face) I found she'd fallen asleep sitting up! She had her blanket cluched, with both hands, to her cheek and she was fast asleep. Silly girl. Then today when it was time for her nap I laid her down on her back. She fussed for a couple of seconds and then pulled the blanket up over her head and went right to sleep. I watched for a bit and when I thought it was safe I slowly pulled the blanket back off her face. She immediately opened her eyes, gave me quite the glare, and pulled the blanket back up. She's got attitude, that's for sure.

The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Ryan coach basketball this winter and made it to about 5 games. Shortly after the season was over Jo and Atticus found me one day and asked if I'd come to school with them. They both had their pack packs on. So I followed them down the hall to their room and seated myself down in my assigned seat next to Jo on the edge of Atticus's bed. Atticus got a ball and began "playing" basketball. Jo and I cheered him on. Then he handed the ball off to Jo. We each took turns. My favorite was Atticus's enthusiastic cheering, though. "GO SPRINKLES!" Ryan coaches in Springville. :) I'm excited for next year if Ryan coaches again!

A couple of days ago Atticus and Ryan were playing with Lego guys. In the midst of one of their battles I overheard Atticus's guy say, "Hey, I have idea! This is my Pew. Pew, Pew!" (Pew is his word and sound effect for guns). We definitely decided that if we ever have a break in we will follow Tic's example in confronting the perpetrator with our weapon. "Hey! I have an idea! This is my Pew. Pew, Pew!" So awesome. Okay... maybe you needed to hear the extremeness in Tic's voice to appreciate the moment.

I was driving alone with Jo a week ago and decided to have a relationship inventory like they do between companions on missions. "Jo, are you glad I'm your mom?"
"Yeah!" with a sweet nod.
"Are you sure?"
She laughs, "Yes, Mama."
"But I'm not that great."
Another girly laugh, "Yes you are!" with a little more force.
"But how can I be better, Jo?"
She pauses for a few seconds before starting into the list. "Cooking and cleaning our clothes and driving and climbing on things and not going in the street and holding me and getting me things that make me happy when I am sad." Somewhere in there I realized she didn't understand my question and was telling me things I'm good at. She is a sweetheart. Someone told me I need to remember this moment for when she's a teenager and might not come up with the same response.

Jo has become a true artist over the last few weeks. It's amazing to me! Something just clicked in her head and she started drawing pictures of things rather than just scribbling. My two favorite pictures so far have been one of Ryan's mom (which is hanging on our fridge) and one of a giraffe (which is now in Ryan's classroom). The giraffe picture is especially neat because she made a machine called a "bowler" which shrinks the giraffe, places it in a ball, carries the ball across the water to the zoo, and puts it into it's cage. I love seeing her absolutely original creativity at work! My least favorite picture was created a few days ago when Jo was going through a Sophie (her cousin) obsession. She spent a solid 3+ hours drawing picture after picture of Sophie doing all kinds of things. One of them was of me and Sophie. Then she added another person to the picture who was holding my hand.
"So this is me, right?" I asked Jo.
"A huh!"
"And this little girl is Sophie?"
"Yep!"
"So who is this? Is this Daddy?" pointing to the person holding my hand.
"No. That's Tom!" Tom is my sister, Christy's, husband. I think it's super sweet how children don't understand social norms and think anything goes. It really is. But it also makes so many awkward moments for us adults.