I think I'm late to this party...

...but I'm really digging Florence + the Machine. It's the perfect music to crank up while cleaning the house on a rainy day. Preferably alone. Just sayin'.

My little singer

So Atticus is in Primary now, and he's learning the songs. He loves to sing. His favorite is "Choose the Right Way," but he likes to spice it up a bit. One night we were singing it, and it went like this:

There's a right way to live and be happy,

It is choosing the right every day.

You betcha!

Complete with plucky hand gesture.

Then the other night he changed the ending to "Choose the wrong way, and be saaaaaad." Today he's been sick, so he ended up on my bed with me after his nap. He was dressed in jammies, fuzzy orange slippers, and his hooded green and yellow striped sweater, pacifier in mouth. His hood was over his face, and his breathing was all raspy, so I couldn't tell if he was awake or asleep. Then I hear a quiet little "... I must always choose the wrong!"

Goodness, I love this goofy kid of ours.

So, um...

I'm not going to try to catch up on the details of the last four months. In case you were worried, we're doing fine. No major developments. Halloween was fun, Christmas was great, I've made goals for the new year, etc. Oh, and we got a new car.

[One detail: the Subaru Outback is the #1 selling car in Salt Lake County. Driving around town I will pass at least 10 other Subarus per outing--no joke, I counted once and got to 10 within 5 blocks of my house. But cross into Utah County, and they're practically nonexistent. We actually drove around the University Mall parking lot looking for them, and we found ONE. Take from that what you will....]

Anywho, I've decided to start updating more regularly. Try to contain your excitement.

Observation

Getting an MRI* is like being trapped inside a dot-matrix printer. Very 1960s sci-fi.

*Went in for shin splints, doctor found a bone cyst and wanted a closer look. Very likely benign, but we'll know more in a couple days. Considering how much this test is going to cost us, I'm kinda hoping for it to be abnormal--but not life-threatening, of course.

UPDATE: MRI was normal. We'll take some xrays in a couple months to make sure nothing has changed.

First Days

Yeah, I know it's almost November,

but better late than never, right?

School!

Atticus loves his preschool. He goes three days a week for 2 1/2 hours. It's a co-op preschool, so I get to be in the classroom a couple times a month.

He didn't want to stand still for a good

"first day" portrait, so this is the best I got.

On his first field trip to Red Butte Gardens. Teacher Miss Stephanie is trying to make them laugh, but only Liam (in glasses) is able to keep a straight face.

Riding tricycles. He still does this occasionally, but his favorite recess activity is digging in the sand.

Soccer!

The boy has great dribbling skills, but really isn't very interested in the game. At his first game, he spent the last half with this group:

He still prefers rolling in the artificial turf (or running in circles, or finger-walking across the field) to playing the game, but yesterday he actually kicked the ball in the right direction DURING THE GAME! High-fives all around.

I think we'll try gymnastics for a while instead. He loves climbing and jumping and balancing on stuff, so it seems better suited to his interests.

This sweet, goofy boy of mine

I wanted to record some of the things Atticus has been doing and saying, things that will record his blossoming personality. And goodness, does this kid have personality.

• He's reached that stage where he gets weird when we tell him to smile. This is the goofiest so far, but at least his eyes are open. Usually he half closes his eyes and looks down.
• He's learned how to give a "thumbs up." The other day I was putting away laundry, and he gave me a thumbs up and said "good job, Mama."
• He's learning knock-knock jokes, thanks to his cousins, but he hasn't quite figured out how they work.

Him: Knock knock who's there?
Me: Alice
Him: [laughs like that's the punchline]
Me: No, now you say "Alice who?"
Him: "Alice who?"
Me: Alice-ee you later!
Him: [laughs, but doesn't really know why]

• He's created his own imaginary past. We're reading a book about trains, and he says, "When I was a big strong boy, I drived that train." Or lately, "When I was a little boy, I read that magazine [pictured in the train book]." He'll elaborate, too, about where he went and what he did.
• He's a man of action. Unless he's really tired, he does not want to sit still. He's constantly asking "where we going today?" Even if we've been out all day, he needs to know that we're going somewhere next. Every night he asks me about the next day's schedule. I've told him he needs to just enjoy the moment, but he's not into that yet.
• He's an articulate little man. He uses words like "actually" and "otherwise," and he uses them correctly.
• He knows how society works. He wanted to bring a toy into the gym daycare, and I told him to leave it in the car. He asked, "Otherwise ["udderwise"] someone take it and say it not yours and keep it?" Yeah. Exactly that.
• He's a little bossy. He'll come wake me up (always before 7 a.m.) and say with some authority, "Mama. It time to get up. The sun's up. Get out of bed." And he'll start pulling off my covers. (I'm looking forward to darker mornings--maybe he'll sleep longer?--but my new goal is to get up before him.)

That's all I can think of right now. I wish I could record more of our conversations, and the sweet way he shows his affection. Oh, I just remembered a sweet moment. We were at the children's museum, and he came to where I was sitting and started climbing around me. He said, "I very happy. I very happy about you, Mama." I said, "Really? Why?" And he said very simply, "Because I love you."

Massive Summer Update

Yeah, ok, so I'm a blogging slacker. I'm going to say I was too busy making memories to record them, but really, I'm just lazy. Oh well. Now that school is back in session, here's my report on What We Did on Our Summer Vacation.

In June I spent a week in North and South Carolina with my mom and two of my sisters, Lara and Susan. We were big fans of the chocolate lounge. So. Many. Options.

Our real purpose there was family history. My mom's mother's parents grew up on opposite sides of the North/South Carolina border. Susan is researching the North line, and I'm working on the South. We met some cousins and looked at old records and visited lots of cemeteries. This one was my favorite, the Pickens Chapel Cemetery in Pickens, SC. The church is long abandoned, and the cemetery is overgrown. I felt like a real researcher battling huge ants and running through torrential rain (not pictured--we came back later) to get a rubbing of my great-great-grandmother's headstone.

In July we visited James's family in Mesa, Arizona. It was hot, but I was surprised at how comfortable I was most of the time. Then I found out what my in-laws pay for air conditioning. Yikes! But we had a good time. We even got most of the family together for a photo by the temple:

Atticus loved playing with his cousins Tanis and Jessie. And feeding Buster, the dog. He still talks about his cousins, and every time he plays "airplane," he's flying to Nana's house.

In August we went on a hike to Albion Basin/Cecret Lake with the ward's moms' group. Atticus hung out with his best buddy Cardon. He loved climbing over the rocks and acting like a mountain goat. He ran the whole way up and the whole way down. That kid is unstoppable.

Also in August was our first ever family reunion. My dad's an only child and my mom has lost contact with her only brother, so we didn't grow up with any extended family. But there are 9 kids in my family, and I think my parents now have 20 grandkids, so it was time. We missed my brothers who were working in California, but my Texas and Illinois sisters were able to come with their families. Again Atticus had a lot of fun with cousins. Henry (in the middle) is only three months younger. He still asks about Sam, who is 11. He wants to grow "big like Sam."

We camped at Mutual Dell in AF canyon, which comes with cool amenities like a zip line and canoes. Atticus wouldn't go down the zip line with us, but we both took a turn.

Atty wasn't a huge fan of the canoes, but he had a great time getting soaked in the lake.

So there's our summer in a nutshell. Lots of travel, lots of family. Good times. In a couple weeks I'll get to tell you about our first day of preschool, and then about his first soccer game. In the words of my son, "I so excited!!"