On Being Kind

Being kind is a big subject in our house. Having a 3 and a 1 1/2 year old, I try and stress the importance of being kind. It all started a couple of months ago...

You see, Ethan had a few run-ins with other children at the park. He's an active kid with semi-bully -ish tendencies and was having a really hard time remembering that it is not okay to hit or to push or to throw woodchips at other kids while we're playing at the park. So, in incident number 1, Ethan threw woodchips right in a little girl's face as she was coming down the slide. Now, I saw this happen and I jumped right in and grabbed Ethan, reprimanded him, made him apologize and gave him a time-out in the stroller. The mom of this kid apparently didn't think enough ado was made over the incident because she continued to brush woodchips out of her daughter's hair and face for the next 5 minutes as she sat down right next to us on the curb consoling her daughter that she was going to be okay. Now, I know my kid was in the wrong. Its not okay to throw woodchips at people, but hello?! Has her kid never done anything to hurt another child? They're just kids!

Now on to incident number 2. A few days later, we were at a different park, and this time as Ethan was sliding down the slide he rammed right into a little boy who was probably about 1 year old. Now, in Ethan's defense, I'm not sure if this was done on purpose (although it wouldn't surprise me), because I was busy helping Grace up the ladder and I didn't want her to fall. Once again, I got a semi-fussing from another parent that I needed to watch my kid to make sure he didn't hurt her little boy again because he was only 1. I think her exact words were "he needs to be careful."

So, finally we get to incident number 3, which was the straw that broke the camel's back. A couple of weeks later we were at the first park again, when the same lady and her kids were there. Now, I was just sitting on the side talking to some friends when one of them said, "uh oh, I think Ethan is pushing that little girl." So, I look up to see Ethan sitting at the top of one of the baby slides and pushing a little girl. Now, seeing as to how it was the same little girl from the woodchips incident and seeing as to how her mom was again right there, I jumped up to run over and stop Ethan, and I was half-way there when this other mom YELLS at the top of her voice right at Ethan saying (and I will use all caps because thats how loud she was yelling): "HEY! STOP PUSHING HER! YOU DON'T EVER PUSH SOMEONE WHEN THEY'RE AT THE TOP OF THE SLIDE!" What I don't get, however (and maybe you'll disagree), is that she was standing literally 2 feet from where her daughter was at the top of the slide. Two steps and she could have easily grabbed her daughter if she was in any real danger. Ethan was, once again, in the wrong, and shouldn't have been pushing. But I can't imagine yelling the way she did at someone else's child that you don't even know. The whole park literally fell silent and was staring at the incident. Needless to say I just grabbed the kids and after apologizing we just left the park.

But, I digress. The point of these stories is to show that we've been working very hard on kindness since these incidents. I have now insitituted a zero tolerance policy for the park. Ethan now knows that if he pushes or hits or throws woodchips or hurts anyone, he has to sit in the stroller until its time to go home. I'm happy to say that he has only had to endure this punishment once, and since then he has been remarkably well-behaved at the park.

Now that we've gotten that under-control, we're trying to work on our words. Specifically on eradicating the phrase "Go away" from both Ethan and Grace's vocabulary. This has become they're favorite thing to yell at people and its driving me nuts. At first I tried threatening with hot sauce -- but that didn't work. Then I tried supplying them with substitute phrases that are kind such as "hi," or "how are you?" or "do you want to be my friend?" And while that kind of works sometimes, more often than not what I hear from the kids is "go away!" followed immediately (after a quick look at me) by "Hi!" Yes my children are very charming. Its funny to hear what they're absorbing though, because the other day when they were sitting at the table, Grace yelled at Ethan to go away, he looked at her very sternly and said "Gracie, you need to be kind." Grace's new response is "go away, friend!"

Well, I thought I was going somewhere with these stories, but apparently I'm not. So, on that note I'll end for tonight. I hope everyone has a fun 4th of July. Hopefully we'll have some fun pictures to post after the weekend.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Ethan Dear!

I contemplated posting a long and detailed account of the day Ethan was born, but I thought I'd spare everyone the traumatizing details and suffice it to say that 3 years ago yesterday, Ethan entered our world! This weekend was turned into one long birthday celebration, seeing as to how the birthday itself fell on a Sunday.

To start it off, Friday evening we went to Toys R' Us to let him pick out a toy for his birthday. After being distracted by the train table for about half an hour, I finally pried him away and made him pick something out. I guess the train table inspired him, because the toy he picked out was a little Thomas the train engine. Having procured the birthday present and pulled Grace away from the Care Bears, we successfully left Toys R' Us with the train and only 2 treats from the checkout! Ethan was so absorbed in his peanut M&Ms that he didn't notice when I took the train out of the bag to hide and wrap for later. (which by the way never happened -- he ended up opening it up on Saturday to play with it before I had ever gotten around to wrapping it).

So, on Saturday we spent the morning at Grandma and Grandpa's where Ethan got an awesome watergun for his birthday, and in the afternoon we ventured back to the water park. It was the only thing that he has been asking for for his birthday for the last several weeks. So, as much as Scott and I hate the water park, we took him and he had a FABULOUS time.

We had decided that we would do the cake and singing of the birthday song on his actual birthday, so on Sunday when we got home from church, Ethan helped me make his pink cake. Yes, you heard me right. For the last couple of weeks whenever I have asked Ethan what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, all he said was a pink cake. I couldn't get him to change his mind as much as I tried, so using a white cake mix as the base, I let Ethan add a ton of red food coloring and voila! A pink cake. (And in case you were wondering, Grace wants a green cake for her birthday, according to Ethan. I'm so glad that he can read her mind).

However, with Grace still taking a nap and Scott having to go back to Church to do his calling and stuff, Ethan was forced to postpone the joy of blowing out the candles until everyone was here. Fast forward to 7:30 PM, and we finally managed to get outside to the backyard to tape the ceremony! After not being able to light the matches for several minutes, we finally managed to light the candles and sing the song and eat the cake. I've posted several pictures of the goodness that followed (keep in mind that this is the very end of a very long day in which Ethan never took a nap). Enjoy!

Here's Ethan sharing his bounty (he helped me make the chocolate frosting for the cake).


Waiting for those darn matches to light

Still waiting

Yay!

Ta da! The pink cake

Here's Grace doing a pretty good job with a fork...

And here she is finally just digging in with her hands.


The beginning of the end...

Whew! What a day. I'll close with one last picture of my little lamb.

This weekend must have really worn him out! Here he is today where he actually fell asleep at naptime (surrounded by his treasures) for the first time in about a month.

Rize, that's the hook

Okay, is anyone else watching So You Think You Can Dance? This could be my new favorite show. Mia Michaels (judge and choreagrapher, left) is insane. Please somebody back me up on this one. Have you heard her talk about dance? She makes up words all the time. She's uber-intense. Here's a picture so y'all can see what I'm talking about. As for tonight's episode, me and Scott were so excited when we saw the first choreagrapher for Krumping -- Lil C. We literally just checked out the documentary Rize this weekend for the second time. I will issue a disclaimer for any of you who might go and check it out that not everybody's gonna like this one. BUT, I thought this documentary was AMAZING. It was so well done and gave such insight into the lives of these inner-city, underprivileged teens who have found a way to overcome the poverty and oppression of their world. I loved it, and the dancing is AMAZING as well. So, if you want to see real krumping (because what they did on So You Think You Can Dance was amateur compared to the real deal) and clown dancing, you need to watch Rize. Again, this is a potentially offensive documentary to some of you out there, but these kids' stories are heart-wrenching.



Now onto the really important things. So, its summer time. And for some reason, each summer I get the irresistible urge to perform hair experiments with Ethan. What? Yeah, hair experiments. The summer he turned one, we postponed his first haircut for so long that he was starting to look like a girl, but I just couldn't part with his little golden locks right away. Last summer, Ethan sported a mohawk for a whole week before Scott made me buzz it off. I have to say though that I missed the mohawk once it was buzzed because I did NOT like how Ethan looked with a buzzed head. I actually really hated it, and it took forever for it to grow back into a normal haircut. So, for this summer I though we'd do the opposite of a buzz. What's the opposite of a buzz you might be wondering. Well, for this summer, Ethan's hair experiment is going to be not cutting his hair at all to see how long we can get it before Labor Day. Since today is the first day of summer, I thought I'd post a Before picture, and don't worry, I'll keep you posted throughout the experiment.

(before)

Scott hasn't approved yet, but I'm already thinking forward to next summer, where I'm considering a mullet. Yes, I'm serious. Do I realize that mullets are ugly? Yes. Do I realize they're outdated? Yes. Do I realize that he will look ridiculous with one? Absolutely. But that's what makes it so fun. And funny.



Now, for a moment of nostalgia for my old roommates, Ethan, Grace and I went to DT pool this afternoon to celebrate the first day of summer. Memories. I didn't try to bring UNO, but I definitely see it in our distant future. Ethan and Grace both LOVED the pool and I think we'll happily spend many days this summer soaking up the sun. When we bought our pool pass they gave us 3 coupons for a free scoop of ice cream at the Creamery, so after we swam we went and got our free ice cream. Needless to say, the kids loved it. Here are the pictures to prove it. (Notice how they start off sitting on the bench, but by the end they've migrated to the top of the table?)









Just in case anyone is wondering, I'm still working on the quilt. Lets just say its a slow-moving process. The kids have adapted (as kids always do) and now just set up camp under the quilt whenever they need to watch TV. Here you can see them watching their favorite show -- Little Einstein's. I'm starting to get a little worried because whenever I ask Ethan who he played with in nursery, he almost always adds Annie and Leo and sometimes Quincy and June. I guess the show is really hitting their target audience with him. Oh and have I mentioned before that Grace is the world's messiest eater? Here is a picture of her after lunch yesterday. And while it looks like she's a member of the Donner-Reed Party, in actuality its just blackberry jam.





Well, to close, I'll just invite any and all comments on the Britney Spears interview with Matt Lauer on Dateline last week. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I missed it the first time around, but thank goodness for TiVo and I was able to catch it when it re-aired the next night.

Alright, peace out.

I'm Ba-aaack!

And I have so much to post!

First things first. On Saturday we attempted a family outing to the movies. Now for those of you who don't know, this weekend was the opening weekend for Pixar's latest project, Cars. So, in a spur of the moment decision, we decided to go right after lunch to try and make the 12:20 showing. Already we realized we were probably pushing it because Grace's naptime is right at that time. By the time we got there, we were too late and had to get tickets for the 12:50 showing, so 20 minutes and 20 dollars in snack food later, the four of us were sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start. I had even brought along the camera to document this momentous occasion, seeing as to how Grace has never been to a movie in a movie theater, and the last time Ethan was in one is was for Seabiscuit when he was 3 weeks old. I wish we would have taken a picture before the movie started because the kids looked so cute sitting on their little booster seats with their popcorn snack trays in their laps and I knew deep down inside that there was no way we were going to make it through a 2 hour movie!

So, to sum it up, Grace was hilarious throughout the previews. As she was munching on her snacks, she managed to interject such exclamations of excitement as "Whoa!" and "Wooooo!" and "Yay!" (accompanied by hand clapping). However, by the time the 20 or 30 minutes of previews were over, the snacks were gone and Grace was ready to get up and play. So, I walked the aisles with her for about 15 minutes or so before Ethan and Scott joined us, because Ethan was so distracted by us leaving. Luckily we got our money back for the movie, and at least it was still a fun (kind of) experience. From what I saw of the movie, though, it looked pretty entertaining.

Whew! Okay, done with that commentary, on to the next! Oh and the above pictures were taken before we left for the movie on Saturday. Ethan found their hats in the living room and wanted to put them on along with one of my hairbands. Then he wanted to take pictures. He actually took the one of Grace.

Okay, so Saturday I finally decided I just had to bite the bullet and get the quilt frame set up. Wow, what a project. I've decided I should never start potentially frustrating projects after 10 o'clock at night because its really not fair to Scott. He usually bears the brunt of it and then I feel really guilty on top of being really frustrated. As you can see from the picture, this quilt is BIG and our apartment -- not so big. The quilt frame basically takes up our whole living room. The kids kind of think its fun. Kind of like a big tent to crawl under over and over each day. Hope they get used to it, 'cause it looks like this baby's gonna take me at least two weeks to finish the quilting! Yeah, this is a pretty big project. Luckily I'll be able to work on it every night this week for a few hours at a time seeing as to how this is crunch time for Scott. He has to finish up his two classes by the end of next week, so he's been at the library studying and doing assignments every night. Do you ever wish you could just fast forward a couple of weeks?

And now for my final update (sorry this is so long!)...

Those of you who keep up with the tabloids will have seen by now the pictures of little baby Shiloh Jolie-Pitt who supposedly has her famous mother's lips. Well, here in the Creer household we've got our own little baby Jolie-Pitt. I tried to get a picture of it (above), but you can't really make it out in the photo. Poor little Grace fell down the concrete steps outside our apartment yesterday and busted her top lip. It swelled up right away, and bled quite a bit, but our little firecracker was up and ready to play again within a few minutes. This morning, however, her upper lip is still swolen and the result is a ridiculously huge mouth for the time being. (Grace accident count -- 1).

I'm beginning to wonder if we'll have to take out a separate insurance policy for our little girl these days because she's so active (read out-of-control). This morning, we woke up to go get the kids out of bed and found the following picture(s) ready for the taking:


Yes, Grace can now climb out of the crib over the foot rail and onto the dresser. Apparently Ethan thought it was a good idea too. Oh and did I mention that Grace can also climb out of her pack 'n play? Yeah, well she can, and today during naptime she managed to somehow knock the full length mirror off the wall in my room thus hurting and scaring herself in the process (Grace accident count -- 2). This afternoon, Grace got clobbered by Ethan (and then the sidewalk) in a scuffle over the cell phone while we were outside playing (Grace accident count -- 3) and as we were coming inside, she managed to smash her big toe in the door as she was closing it (Grace accident count -- 4). The paparazzi might have more on me than Brittney Spears! Where's a manny when you need one? You may be wondering, curiously, why there are no tales of Ethan today. I have to say, my number one son has been awfully good and helpful the past few days. We drew a hopscotch on the sidewalk outside with chalk the other day, and it has become one of his favorite new things to do. And with a quilt taking up practically our whole apartment these days, we've been spending an awful lot of time outside. I think it agrees with him.

Okay, so I'm sure you're past the point of bored by now, so I won't even start on a My Life Monday...

I almost forgot the best thing of all! I ran into one of my best friends in the whole world from college randomly at the University Mall on Thursday afternoon (wow, if that isn't a run-on sentence I don't know what is). Me and Ethan and Grace were meandering through Deseret Book on our way into the mall when who should we see but Ms. Heidi Simpson and her mom. Talk about good times. The best part of all was that my kids didn't even destroy the whole place (that much) while I was chatting it up. Of course it helped that I had some loose jelly beans that I found in my purse to bribe them with... Needless to say it was so much fun to see such a good friend (and her cute little sleeping boy). I was just sad I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture for the blog.

Until next time.

Patchwork Party

My Life Monday: Week 5 -- Take a picture of something (not somebody) that represents part of who you are. Share that object and tell why it is significant to you.

Here above you will see my latest "project" phase. I love to do crafts and crafty things. I've gone through knitting phases, crocheting phases, scrapbooking phases, quilting phases, sewing phases, embroidery phases, etc., etc., etc. My problem is, I usually undertake huge projects when I've first entered a phase and get really excited about working on it for a few days at least (sometimes even a few weeks) but before I've finished what I've started, I'm usually bored of the project and ready to move on to something else.

For instance, last July I got into a really big quilting phase and decided I wanted to hand-make a brand-new quilt for our bed. So, fast forward almost a year and have I finished yet? No. I've got front and back all pieced together and batting waiting to go inside, but I just can't work up the energy to get out the quilting boards and frame and set it all up. Because I like the quilting part, I just don't feel like doing the setting up just yet.

And just a couple of months ago, I was in a big scrapbooking phase. A friend of mine hosted a scrapbooking party for one of those scrapbook companies and I got all excited about finishing up the scrapbook I started for my college years. I bought a bunch of new paper, new glue and some other embellishments and finished exactly one layout before I got bored with it and moved on (and all I have left to do is my senior year!).

So, I posted this particular project to show that, for once, I finished a project before I got bored and moved on! I decided to make this baby quilt to hone up on my quilting skills before starting on the aformentioned queen-size quilt. I saw all these pretty fabric squares already cut and ready to go at my favorite quilting store and I couldn't resist. It only took about a week from start to finish and I have to say it was very fun. I find quilting to be very therapeutic for me (not to mention it gives me an excuse to watch whatever junk I want to on TV, because at least I'm doing something productive while I'm watching, right?).

There you have it. A representation of a part of me. Now all I need is the baby girl to go with the baby quilt...

Another weekend gone by

Now aren't those faces cute?

I couldn't resist snapping a shot after church today while they were still wearing the headbands they colored in nursery today. They were learning about eyes in case you're wondering what's on the paper.

Anyway, this weekend was a fun one. Funner than the last few at least. On Friday night Scott and I played Trivial Pursuit for the first time in a long time. To make the game a little more interesting I decided we needed to have a little incentive for winning. Since sleep is a precious commodity around our house, we decided that the winner got to sleep in on Saturday. Now with those kind of stakes, there's no way I was gonna let Scott win. So, in spite of a slow start on my part (and thanks to Scott being stuck on his last pie piece for like 20 minutes) I managed to beat Scott -- and with a sports question to boot! Needless to say Saturday morning was a dream. I slept all the way in to NINE O'CLOCK. Now to those of you without little children, that may not seem very late, but to me it felt like I had slept in till noon. And Scott had even cleaned up the house for me while I slept! What a great start to a weekend, right?

We finally let Ethan talk us into going to the Splash Pool right next to the park. The pool opened the week before Memorial Day, and every day since its been opened all Ethan wants to do is go to the "water park." And since we go to the park quite a bit, its been pretty pitiful watching Ethan stand by the fence watching all the other kids having fun playing at the Splash Pool. So on Saturday, after naptime, we finally sucked it up (and in) and donned our swimsuits and went to the "water park."

Now, the irony was that even though Friday was BLAZING hot, Saturday was only moderately hot(88), overcast, and a little breezy. The result was that we were FREEZING and I hated it the whole time we were there (about an hour and a half). Not to mention that the only swimsuit I have right now is a maternity one -- leftover from the summer I was pregnant with Grace -- and when it gets wet, the fabric totally stretches out practically to my knees AND when I'm in the water, the fabric floats up and I feel like I'm flashing the whole underwater world. (Its times like this that I feel like such a good mom -- making my kids happy at my expense).

Meanwhile Ethan loves to play WITH water, but he DOES NOT like to be IN the water. So, he spent the whole time up on the play structure turning all the wheels and gizmos that made water shoot out from all different kinds of pipes, spray out water, and fill up buckets and other gadgets. Then there's Grace whose like a little fish and doesn't know the meaning of the word caution. She would've dived right into the water if one of wasn't there to make sure she didn't drown.


Needless to say, I will NOT be attempting a solo trip to the Splash Pool with the kids. I was finally able to pry Grace out of the grips of the alluring water and bring her to the side of the pool to wrap her up and warm her (her lips were literally blue and her little body was shivering convulsively yet she still protested vigorously when being taken from the pool). Luckily snacks usually do wonders in distracting her from whatever she's throwing fits about. Five minutes later Scott was able to do the same with Ethan -- who was also shivering convulsively yet protesting with all the persistence and determination that makes him our Ethan. We finally convinced him it was time to go (okay, okay we outright lied to him and told him the water park was closing) and we were on our merry way home. All in all it was a successful outing. Ethan talked about it for the rest of the evening and all day today saying "remember the water park, mom?" "that was fun, huh, mom?" So, like I said before. Its times like this that I feel like a really good mom.




Now, the biggest news around our house right now is the MacBookthat Scott bought on Saturday at noon and managed to wait all the way until 7 PM to surprise me with (for those of you who don't know, neither Scott nor I are good with surprises, so 7 hours is pretty remarkable!). Scott has to have a laptop for business school, and after researching all different kinds, he decided to get this one (and I'm really glad because this is the one I really wanted too). We already have a Mac for our home computer, and we figured it would be good to keep up the solidarity. Once you go Mac, you don't go back. Or at least I don't. Anyway, its pretty awesome and I'm looking forward to playing around with it this week and figuring out all the stuff it can do. I figure once school starts Scott can have it full-time. But for right now, I'm gonna be burning some DVDs, baby!

ooooohhh!

So, that was our weekend -- sorry for the play by play!

more randomness

Today was the first day of registering for the summer reading program at the Provo Library. As you can see, free t-shirts were part of the bargain. But my favorite thing about this picture is Ethan's face. Why is that whenever you ask a child around his age to "smile," this is the result? (all squinched up eyes and bared teeth) Anyone else know what I mean?

So, the kids are happy to have their "library shirts," but I have to make a small confession. As most of you know, I love to read (that's not the confession). However, (here it comes) I HATE reading out loud. At times I feel like a really horrible mom because Ethan will want me to read a book to him for the twentieth time, and I just can't do it. Isn't that weird? I just don't like reading out loud. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get used to it, because as part of the summer reading program you have to pledge to read x-amount of minutes a day to your child/children. *sigh*


To the right you will see my latest experiment in progress. Behold the "potty-training M&Ms." Yep, thats right. This week marks the start of what I hope to be a speedy and successful ordeal. Ethan will be 3 this month and I'm just really tired of having two kids in diapers. I'm hoping some good old-fashioned bribing will work wonders with my number one son. So, far he's done nothing on the potty -- yet eaten many an M&M. Hmmmm. Well, at least Grace is taking some interest. As long as I can get ONE child potty-trained this summer...

Honestly though, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've never done this whole potty-training thing before. I'm just doing the best I can!



To end, I thought I'd leave a short little anecdote involving my husband. Last night Scott was very studiously working on his independent study classes (econ 110 and accounting 200) that he has to finish by July 1st in order to start BYU's MBA program in the fall. He was sitting at our brand new table (see picture in post below) when I heard him say "Oww!" Well, when we got our table, it had "some minor assembly required" (oh and boy could that story fill a whole other post) and we had to screw the legs onto the table ourselves. Before assembled, the legs were attached to the bottom of the table with plastic strips (these are hard to describe, but I'm hoping you get the picture) and staples. Well, these staples were practically IMPOSSIBLE to get out, and by the time that we were finished with the "minor assembly" it was very late and I was very frustrated and didn't feel like being frustrated further. Long story short, the staples were still attached to the underside of the table, and Scott had just scraped his knee on one.

Wow, this is longer than I intended. So, Scott got very industrious and decided to get out some pliers and pull all the staples out. In order to do so he had to crawl under the table and lay down on his back and pull down on the staples with the pliers. So, as I was very busily playing around on the computer, I heard an even LOUDER "Owwww!" and I looked over to see Scott holding onto his head where apparently his hand slipped yanking on the staple and punched himself right in the temple (it's okay, you can laugh). So, I was concerned thinking he'd stabbed himself in the head with the pliers or something because of all the blood, but no -- it wasn't until this morning that I found out that the pliers didn't do it. It was just his knuckle. He had literally clocked himself so bad it broke the skin and was bleeding.

Whewwww! Okay, I think I'm done for now. (oh but p.s. did anyone else catch the season premiere of "the hills" last night? let's discuss [yes, i know its pathetic that i still watch mtv programs]).