Wheppin if . . .?

Dallin sometimes creates his own little language and it takes us awhile to figure out what he is saying. Lately he has been asking, "What would happen if . . . " (fill in the blanks). He asks the question so often that he has created his own contraction: WHEPPIN.

Dallin: Mom, wheppin if you have no eyes?
Mom: You wouldn't be able to see.

Dallin: Wheppin if you have no fingernails?
Mom: Ummm . . . . (I often just trail off because I don't know how to answer)

Dallin: Wheppin if you have no eyebrows?
Wheppin if your mouth falls out?
Wheppin if you have no heart? You have no love?
Wheppin if you have no hair?
Wheppin if you have no head?
Mom or Dad: You would die.
Dallin: Why?

Each of these questions has been asked multiple times to both of us. They are his favorites. He knows the answers . . . maybe he is just trying to fill some awkward silences. I don't think he is physically able to let a silent moment pass without filling it with some noise. He talks constantly. I have been know to turn on the TV just for a break from the constant chatter.

He is also really preoccupied with pee and poop. He thinks it's funny to talk about it. Despite our best efforts to discourage the subject matter, he constantly talks about it. Today I asked him if he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "No, I want a pee sandwich."

Mom: Dallin, that's really disgusting. You don't really want a pee sandwich, don't talk like that. Now, what kind of sandwhich do you want?

Dallin: I want a pee sandwich (mischeivous giggle)

Mom: All right.

So I went in the kitchen to make his pee sandwich (honey) As I was drizzling on the honey, Dallin came in the room and saw the "pee" go on the sandwich. He got really upset and realized that he didn't want a pee sandwich. After a minute of teasing, I eased his spirit by revealing what the pee actually was.

I don't think he'll ask for a pee sandwich again. Although he did ask for a "poopcicle" later in the day.

He's actually really cute, but I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one.

Shingletown Gap

At the end of a grumpy day, we took the kids hiking at Shingletown Gap. It was a good parenting moment, because it improved everyone's mood. We got to explore in the woods, cool off a bit, and play in the water a little. The whole family loved it. The only thing we would do differently is to bring some bug spray. (You can't really see the cloud of bugs buzzing around everyone's heads). If you every come and visit we will be sure to take you here to visit.

Our Photographer

Sadie has recently taken up an interest in taking pictures. Judging from the pictures that she has been taking, I think we can safely call it photography. She was playing with her "My Little Ponies" recently (after many months of non-use) She got them all ready for their photo shoot. I don't know how many braids I had to do that day, but I think I'm an expert now. All I have to put on my resume is that my daughter had "My Little Ponies" and I would be hired instantly as the official braider at any hair salon. I think that should be added to the "What To Expect" book series.

"All mothers of young girls should expect to complete at least 3000 braids on various
dolls and figurines during adolescence."

She also took these pictures of her ponies. There were many, many, many more. I cut some out.






Her muse then became Dallin. He's pretty cute don't you think? After a few pictures of smiles and cuteness, things got a little out of hand. When they aren't driving me crazy, they make me laugh like crazy! Moments like these really make me glad to be their mom.

Like Mother; Like Daughter

The other day I was putting together a little baby quilt and had some leftover squares. Sadie likes to play with them so I gave them to her. I mentioned that she could probably make a blanket too. She got really excited about it. She picked out her squares and arranged them the way she wanted and then she sewed them together. It's not her first project (she made a toothfairy pillow) But I think she did a great job. The only thing she didn't do was the actual quilting. She took the pictures too. I see a future in photography!





Dallin wanted to be involved too. After he had his picture taken I made him his own little blanket.

As Promised . . . mostly for my mom

Well Mom, I really hope that you are reading this. I have been assuring you for many months that I update my blog regularly, but I have been lying. I am making a sincere effort to repent of my ways and sin no more. So here goes.





What is a kid's favorite toy? A cardboard box! This magnificent pirate ship was once a box to our brand new jogging stroller. (I'm really excited about this stroller). Notice the flag and their mean pirate faces. The ship last for a few days, but they had a lot of fun with it. I think everyone in the courtyard eventually was part of this game!




Besides spending most of our time playing in the backyard, we decided to celebrate the beginning of the summer with a camping trip. So, on the last day of school, we crammed everything into our little car and ventured out to Raystown Lake. It was a great trip spent with our good friends, The Lees. We swam; we made smores; Steve mountain-biked; I did some trail running; and we had close call with some poison ivy. It took about three days to recover (I never realized how much work went into our week long camping trips when I was younger - thanks mom and dad)


And finally, these last few pictures are just from a photo shoot that I did to make a Father's Day card. The card never happened, but I got some cute pictures that I think show their personality quite well.




Can you tell that Sadie likes to pose for pictures? In fact, my neighbor has been using her as a model for some of her artwork. You can find an example of what she has been doing here.

Has it been awhile?

I know it's ridiculous . . . you are thinking, "Where are those cute kids; what have they been doing for the last few months?" I promise you, there will be pictures soon, but right now I want to post about my awesome craftiness. I've been meaning to do this post for quite sometime and finally, I did it today. I made these great scripture totes based on a tutorial for a summer tote found at Homemade by Jill. I just changed the size of things so that it will fit a set of scriptures!



See? Isn't it perfect? I was quite proud of myself. If you would like to know the dimensions I used (or if you want me to make you one) I would be happy to oblige. On that note, I had so much fun making these for Sadie and Dallin that I made an extra one with leftover fabric. I want to give it to the first one who asks for it -- I'll even pay for the shipping!

Crush

Overheard on the playground:

"Sadie has a crush on Justin."

"Nu-uh, I have a crush on my Dad"



That's ok with me, Sadie. I do too!

What dads are good for

Yesterday I was outside when Sadie was playing with a girl that lives in our courtyard. I remembered Carrie telling me that the girl's mom was getting married, so I mentioned it to this girl to find out what she thinks about the whole thing. She said, "Yes, and I don't like it," with a cute smile on her face, indicating that she's not that devastated about the whole thing.

At that, Sadie said, in absolute disbelief, "What?? Are you kidding?? Dads are like the funniest things in a family!!" She then went on to explain how I always make her laugh and I'm really funny.

The funniest "things" in a family. It's always great to get some insight into how your kids think about you.

Little Old Boy

Yesterday, while we were running some errands, Dallin said to me, "I'm just a little, old boy." When I asked him what he was talking about he just said, "I'm a little, old, old, boy." I laughed. Then this morning when I took this picture I was trying to get him to smile. He said, "Me ten be grumpy." If I put that into my Dallin translator, it means, "I'm pretending to be grumpy." I guess he is just a little, grumpy, old man.

Snow

We've been hit with the snow too! Why so many pictures of Dallin? He didn't take off with his friends like Sadie did. In fact, this was about as far as he got. It was much fun to play in because it was so deep. It wasn't packing snow either, so we couldn't make anything. We had fun for a little while. Now we are waiting for more to accumulate tonight. I think this is the most snow I have ever seen in my life (apart from mountain tops). I don't mind because I don't have to commute anywhere. We just hang out in the apartment all day.

Mud

Not so new feature for White Course Apartments: Mud Hole for Kids of Every Age to Enjoy!
It's been there since last spring . . . oh well, the kids love it! It was really cold too. He had fun until his hands got cold!

Speech

I have always taken my ability to speak for granted. I have also taken it for granted that my children will develop normally (or above normal) And that they will grow up to be Nobel Prize winners. This Christmas break we had an experience that made me appreciate both.

Dallin has always been a little bit behind the bell curve in physical development. He wasn't holding his head up at when the doctor checked at four months old (he did 1 week later); he wasn't sitting up at 6 month (he did the day after his checkup). He wasn't crawling at 9 months and he wasn't walking at 12 months. He didn't say his first word until 18 months. It wasn't a big deal that we couldn't understand about half of what he said.

Right around Christmas he started stuttering. He would say the first part of his word over and over again. At first we just thought he was talking funny and developing a weird habit of holding on to part of his word longer than necessary. We would even copy him a little and laugh. But then it got worse. It got to the point where he would clench his jaw and start talking in a high pitched voice and cover his mouth. It was really sad.

For those of you who don't know Steve, he has dealt with a stuttering problem most of his life. Usually it's not that noticable, but during times of high stress it can be quite problematic. We were both worried about the potential struggles that Dallin would face but Steve even more so. It was hard for him to watch -- one time he even had to leave the room when Dallin was trying to talk to me. I don't know all that Steve was feeling. I'm sure he was worried about Dallin, but I think it also brought back memories of his own struggles and frustrations and missed opportunities.

As a mother and a wife, I can tell you that it was very difficult to see the suffering of two people that I love very much. I wanted to take their struggles and pain away. I wanted to go through it for them. But I couldn't. I felt pretty helpless.

Steve and I talked about it a lot. We researched on the internet. We talked to friends and family. We decided to wait until the end of January before we would seek professional help. We hoped that it was just part of his development.

I am happy to report that Dallin is almost completely stutter free. We can even understand more than 50% of what he says. I do notice that when he is stressed (like when I yell at him) or tired or excited the stutter will return, but not nearly as bad as it was. I am grateful for friends and family who let me talk through this with them. And grateful that Dallin seems to be ok. I am also happy that we haven't had to worry about things more severe than a speech problem. Now that he can talk fine, we have a hard time getting him to talk! He asks questions all day long. I can live with that.

Our second annual online Christmas letter

Last year we liked the idea of posting our Christmas letter to our blog so much that we've decided to do it again! So, here goes our Christmas letter in which I faun over each member of our family, picking out only the cool things that happened to each of us in the last year.


Dallin

The little man turned three in November. He uses only object pronouns (me, us, him, her), so he basically sounds like a caveman toddler. I've actually never heard him say "I" or "we." At least he's consistent! It's actually kind of cute (Where us going? Me no like that!) and, in a show of solidarity, we will often restrict ourselves to the approved pronouns.

Sadie was never into toys all that much, so Dallin is picking up the slack. For whatever reason, Dallin really, really likes PLAYMOBIL toys. He has a castle set and a pirate set. He's also a very physical kid, which has its pros and cons. It makes him a great snuggler and wrestler, but it can get annoying when he sits on your head.

He doesn't eat after about 3 pm. Seriously. The kid has a solid breakfast (usually oatmeal), nibbles at lunch, has a few snacks, and then usually rips on whatever we're having for dinner (me no like that!). At least he likes fruit.

Sadie

Sadie turned six in September. She's in first grade. She's a fantastic reader (her teachers have all been really impressed) and she has a colossal imagination. She's (usually) a joy to be around and it's always fun to hear what new craziness she comes up with. She's amazingly patient with her rambunctious little brother.

It's fun to think about what she'll do when she's older. Choir or drama or something like that is probably a safe bet. Recently, we've started having guitar sing-alongs, which she thoroughly enjoys. Now if we could just get her to have a better attitude about helping around the house . . .

Carrie

Carrie just got glasses, in case you missed it. Exciting.

She's stepped up her crafty stuff a notch. She opened a shop at etsy.com. Her shop has had a lot of visits, but no sales yet. Fortunately, she's had some requests from friends and family. She makes some killer snowflakes and some nice baby stuff. I think she really enjoys doing it. And it helps that one night a week she bails on us right before bedtime to go do crafty stuff with her friends (in all honesty, though, I'm really glad that she gets at least that one good break every week).

She's pretty involved at Sadie's school, too. She volunteers in the classroom occasionally and helps with Daisy Scouts (which, I hear, Sadie isn't too fond of thus far).

She's been teaching Gospel Doctrine at church for some time now. I always like to hear her recount what crazy comments were offered and how she steered away from disaster. I'm kidding (mostly).

She wanted to make sure I included the fact that she's read over 10,000 pages this year. Um, yeah. She likes to read.

I continue to be amazed at Carrie's dedication to motherhood. And fortunately I'm a heavy sleeper and I sleep on the side of the bed furthest from the door, so I miss all the middle-of-the-night events like nightmares and leaky pull-ups.

Me

I had a pretty nice year. In the spring, I turned in my defended and approved master's thesis. A revised version of that thesis was recently accepted for publication in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. It will probably appear next year sometime. I have a couple co-authored publications in the works, too. I'm aiming to take my comprehensive exam in the spring.

Over the summer, I fulfilled my long-time desire to start playing guitar. I even upgraded to a Martin, which I love (they're made right here in Pennsylvania, too - we toured the factory a couple months ago). I'm not very good yet, but I sure do enjoy it. I'd love to get lessons sometime. Carrie just wants me to finish the song that I started writing for her. Soon, my dear. Soon.

By far the coolest thing I did this year, though, was playing rugby. I happened to catch a replay of the college national championship between BYU and Cal on ESPNU (BYU won!) and I was hooked. I loved it. So, I got on the Google and looked up rugby here in State College. I found a team here and saw on their website that they're always looking for new players. So, I contacted them, even as I could feel my muscles and bones protesting. I'm not very good at rugby, either, but it's a blast. I healed nicely from the obligatory MCL sprain and had a nice season after that. I hope to see more playing time next spring when we have more B-side matches. By the way, go see Invictus. It's great, and you don't need to know anything about rugby.

Well, that's it. The only thing that bugs me about these letters is that they're basically like a promotional pamphlet your family. So let me throw in the fact that we sometimes yell, we often let our kids watch TV so we can go back to sleep, and sometimes it gets old to go to different churches on Sunday. But I'd like to think that we've got a pretty great little family. Love abounds, and I think that's all that really matters.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody.

It's been awhile. . .

You know what it's like when you look at a pile of ironing? It's pretty big and it needs to be done, but not just now. It just sits there waiting for you. Finally you get to the point that you are ready to do it, but it's just been so darn long that it can wait for awhile longer. Well, I did my ironing today, and it didn't take very long (secretly I kind of like doing it) Now I am tackling my other pile: my blog. I can't believe it's been three months. I think I was waiting for something spectacular to happen . . . but since every day is spectacular, nothing really stuck out. What was the thing that prompted me to finally post? I got new glasses. Wow. Maybe I was just looking for a reason, but it's always hard to break the blogging ice. We don't have babies to announce, or Ph.D. news. We don't have a new job and Sadie hasn't lost any teeth. Dallin is potty trained, but still pees the bed (every night). I still haven't sold anything on Etsy, but Steve does have a paper that was accepted for publication.

So, my news and my great picture is about my glasses. What do you think? It turns out that it wasn't church that was giving me a headache every week, it was my eyes. Now I can watch movies and drive without headaches too. Small miracles that cost us $200. Oh well.

Etsy!

I did it! I started my own site on Etsy! I am really excited, but also a little nervous. For those of you who don't know what Etsy is, it's basically a website where people can sell their homemade items. Since I love making crafty stuff, I decided to try and sell it there. I haven't been particularly successful selling it at craft fairs since most of it is baby stuff. You can check my work out at the side of the blog (it's hard to miss) Check it out often because I'm adding a lot of things since I'm just getting started. You can also register with Etsy and "heart" my shop . . . it would be a great help if you can't buy anything. Let me know if you want email updates of my new items. Send good vibes and (are you allowed to pray for etsy shops?)

Summer at the Merino house

It's been too long since Carrie or I have posted, so I thought I'd share a bit about what we've been up to this summer.

Carrie just got back from a mommy vacation with a friend. No kids, no husbands, just the two of them. They went to West Virginia for the weekend. I think she enjoyed it. They mostly sat around and did crafty stuff and talked. She says that WV looks a lot like central Pennsylvania. I can imagine that. I bet I'd like the mountain biking. Anyway, we managed OK at home. Went swimming, ate pizza, stayed up late.

The kids are enjoying summer. We got Dallin a new bike and he probably spends an hour or two a day just riding in circles around our courtyard. Dallin cracks me up. His desire to speak and learn new words definitely exceeds his actual verbal ability, and some pretty funny things result. He has this funny habit of just repeating the last couple words of whatever you last said, often with a question inflection on the end. It really threw him for a loop when I shaved off my beard recently. For about a week he just kept asking me about it and wanting to touch my face. Alas, I already have about two weeks growth on my face again, and now he just talks about how scratchy it is.

Sadie is looking forward to first grade and her upcoming birthday. She spends most the time outside playing. She's lost a bit of the zeal for reading that she had right after school ended, but she did pick up a newspaper when we were in downtown State College yesterday and took it home and asked me questions about all the articles. It was cute.

We went camping a few weeks ago. It was great. We went to Raystown Lake, which is about an hour or so from us. We went swimming, played, hiked, and so on. They recently finished a new system of trails designed especially for mountain bikers. They were amazing. So fun that a week later I went back for a night by myself.

I've had a busy summer. I finally picked up our guitar that had been gathering dust since we got it a while back. I've been playing a bit every day and having a blast with it. It's amazing how much progress you can make it just a little bit of time. I already have the beginnings of a couple songs (well, some really cool chord progressions). I had a revise and resubmit on a paper (my master's thesis, essentially). I just finished that and I'm waiting for the result. I had an outright rejection (fun!), and a professor and I have finished two papers we're submitting right now. So, busy summer from that perspective.

But by far the coolest thing I've done this summer was starting to play rugby. Yes, rugby. It's a blast. I caught a replay of the college national championship between BYU and Cal a while back and just loved it. I started looking around on the internet and found out that Penn State has a team, and that there is a local rugby club for grad students and non-students. I contacted them and they said that they're always looking for new players. So, I started practicing with them over the summer (well, just touch rugby with a mix of girls, high school students, college students, and so on). We just started our real practices and our first match is on the 29th. It's still a bit overwhelming, but the guys have been really supportive and helpful when I mess up or have questions. Great sport, rugby. Very under-appreciated in the U.S. I love the emphasis on teamwork, equal participation, camaraderie, sportsmanship, and respect. Of course, it's brutal and rough, but not in an American football kind of way. More like in a wrestling with your brothers in the back yard kind of way. And it looks chaotic and crazy when you don't know what's going on, but it's actually very organized and controlled. And it definitely requires a lot of teamwork to score.

Celtic Fling

Recently, we went to the Celtic Fling at the Renaissance Festival grounds. The kids loved the music (if it wasn't too loud) they loved looking at all the shops and they loved dressing up.

This is in front of the band "Enter the Haggis" I don't really know how to describe their music . . . you'll have to ask Steve. He has really been into the smaller groups lately and loves to travel around to listen to them. His next goal is to go to the Philly Folk Festival next month.

This ride was great. It was powered by a pirate. As you can see, Dallin lost the thrill once it got going too fast. But the pirate was great and stopped the ride for him. It was a great 3 dollar ride! Although we didn't get any pictures, we also saw some Irish dancers. My next goal is to get Sadie involved with Celtic dancing. I think she would do great. They just reminded me of her with all the bouncing and jumping.

Little Women

With the last Scholastic book order, I ordered some Junie B. books. Sadie has been asking me when they are coming for quite awhile. She keeps telling me that she is ready to read chapter books because she is a really good reader. I just told her they would come soon. Yesterday she picked up a Great Classics for Children version of Little Women. The girl read 54 pages yesterday! There are pictures on about every other page, and the print is large, but still . . . 54 pages. She was really proud of herself. I don't think we were impressed enough for her though, because she kept telling us how hard it was and how good of a reader she was. It was really cute. I let her read a couple of chapters to me before she went to bed. It reminds me of myself when I was younger. It's nice to have her be entertained so quietly too! I am really proud of my girl!

For Mother's Day, Steve took the family to a place that he likes to go mountain biking. Shingletown Gap. I think the name is cool enough to warrant going. It's not very far from where we live, and yet it felt like we were out in the wilderness (not quite, but you get my point) That's one of the reasons why I love State College -- you don't have to go very far to get away. It was great to be out in the woods. We let the kids take their time walking because the terrain was pretty rough. At first Dallin was a little afraid of the fast moving creek, but after he got over it, there was nothing else that he would talk about. I think he said the word "water" about 500 times. Maybe more.

Sadie kept creating photo opportunities by finding a rock to sit on or a tree to stand by. It was kind of funny because it seemed like she was doing it on purpose because she knew I would take a picture. I don't think she was aware of that though. There is a romantic soul in that girl.

Steve would show me the trails he would have to carry his bike up in order to find the trail to ride. I don't know how he rides on those trails. They are extremely rocky and rooty (is that a word?) It all seems a little dangerous to me, especially when I see how steep they are. Maybe he shouldn't have shown me, because now I will worry even more. Oh, well, he loves it. He's also in an incredible mood after a bike ride. It's worth it.

The whole outing was very relaxing and fun. We didn't have a destination or a goal, we just walked and explored. It reminded me of outings into the forest as a kid. One in particular, Dad led us to some old beaver dams. We collected some salamander eggs and even caught some. I tried to drink some water just coming out of the pond and was instructed about all the things that could be living in that water. There's something to be said about connecting with nature. It makes you appreciate life in all it's forms. For me, my testimony of God's existence and His love for us is strengthened. I miss wandering through the woods and can't wait to go camping this year.

Tribute to Sadie

I haven't posted in quite some time. Mostly it's due to my laziness in uploading pictures to the computer. I finally did it and I have a lot of awesome pictures, but one really stood out, and so I thought that Sadie deserves a post all to herself.

She has been doing awesome in school. She is always amazing me by her ability to read, do math, count money, tell time, write (sometimes her handwriting is better than mine). Not only does she do well in all these things, she loves doing it. Every Friday she brings home a packet of all the things she did that week and she can't wait to show me.

Even though we still have some troubles with her emotions getting the better of her, we have seen a shift in her maturity. We see some remorse for doing something wrong and we occasionally see her take responsibility for those mistakes. The other night, we were really having a hard time getting her to clean her room and Steve and I both got upset. We informed her of a new rule that she wouldn't be able to play with friends unless her room was clean. (She didn't like it very much) After a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (on both sides) we agreed that she would either help clean her room or she would have to pay me to do it. She doesn't have have any money, so she would have to do chores to pay for it. Steve didn't really like the idea and tried to explain to her that it would easier to just clean it. She wouldn't listen to reason. We sent her to bed. As I was saying good night, she started crying and said, "You don't like me." I informed her that I like her very much and that I even love her. As I gave her a reassuring hug, she said, "I'll help clean the room after school tomorrow."

Just the fact that she would say that surprised me. I was stunned when she actually followed through this afternoon. She didn't even ask if she could play. In fact, after dinner she asked if she could do more chores to earn some money for a doll. I think I may have blacked out for a second out of shock. She is able to think and plan a little further into her future. I think that's a great developmental milestone. It makes it a little easier for us too.

Sadie is really emotional, especially when she is tired. With the change in the weather, she has been wearing herself out and we have been privy to quite a few more meltdowns. But even among her meltdowns, I can see remorse for poor decisions and less than good behavior. She is still excellent with Dallin (usually) and she loves to "take care of" our neighbors baby. She is a lot of fun to be with, especially one-on-one. We love our beautiful daughter and are amazed by her every day. (Sometimes we are amazed by how difficult she can be, but usually we are amazed by her growth, kindness, and beauty)