doot-do-doo tubes

I believe it is important to pass on the knowledge I have gained in my life, to empower my children with the life skills that will be the most useful in their own lives. This is why I recently passed on the only thing I remember from my high school Physics teacher.

I heard Benjamin yelling at me from the bathroom, clear across the house. I went stomping up the stairs to find his yelling more intense as I approached. "Mom! I need more toilet paper! Mom!!!!!! I need more..." This is when I enlightened him on the functions of a toilet paper roll. To most, the tube performs only the function of convenience in putting it on the toilet paper holder. While this is convenient, it is not the most important feature. When taken off the holder, the tube doubles as a megaphone in which one can call, "Doot-do-dooo! I need more toilet paper." We shared a smile as I demonstrated, but I wasn't sure if I had gotten through to him. This may be one of those lessons I'd have to give over and over in life. However, I was teaching a piano lesson a few days later when I heard the cutest little voice say, "Doot-do-dooo! I need more toilet paper!" You'd better believe I ran and helped the kid out. I only wish he learned all lessons this quickly. Thanks to high school physics, Ben will never be stranded again!

still...at last!

I love to peek in on my sleeping boys at night. It gives me chills. They are so adorable when they are asleep! Tonight I was reminded why I love that so much. For the past 4 days, I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Micah to hold still. It began Sunday morning during Sacrament meeting. We do our best to sit behind the family with four little girls, who are as far as I can tell, perfect. We find this makes the contrast much more extreme. The two older boys are doing ok, but our darling 2 year old has a problem with the quiet concept.

He talks, he sings, he flirts with the bench behind us, he throws crayons, he says "hi" to people across the congregation. And this is all before the meeting begins. It is rough. I caught Phil trying to listen to the speaker on Sunday and realized how long it had been since I'd done the same!

Monday morning swimming lessons began. Try taking this energetic little 2 year old to a pool filled with splashing, giggling children and have him just "watch" his brothers swim. If we make it 2 weeks without him jumping in, I'll be amazed. That night was another t-ball game for Benji. Surely he could sit and watch his brother in the sun for an hour without squirming too much, right?

Two more days of swimming lessons, a few piano lessons for Jacob in which Micah wanted to be on either my lap or Jacob's, four days of trying to change the diaper of a moving target, and of course a fun filled hour and a half at the movie theater today for the boys to watch Toy Story. And did I mention Phil is gone for four days??

So tonight at Benjamin's t-ball game, after an inning of watching Benjamin sulk around the field because it was too hot, Micah was crawling all over me and I lost it!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! "Can't you just hold still for one minute?????" I muttered through gritted teeth, as I whipped him around to sit beside me. I'm sure the people I was sitting by thought I was over-reacting just a tad, but I couldn't take it any longer!! How hard can it be to just sit still!?!?!?!

Ok, now I am calm again. This brings me to my point. I LOVE sleeping little boys. The sight of three motionless (heavily breathing) bodies sends me to my happy place. Aren't they sweet?

What's more American than baseball?

Benjamin started T-ball this week. It was a little rough going at first, but he's survived his first two games (translation=we've survived his first two games!) Not many things are cuter than seeing your kid run the bases!!!
Jacob attended his first Salt Lake Bees game this week. Complete with popcorn, lemonade and a huge ice cream (thanks to Grandpa Stevens!), the game was a fun for 3 generations of Stevens!!!

On your mark, get set, escargot!

Ok, one more bug post. We had our awesome friends from Texas, the Mitchells and the Graves, here last week. Rebekah was enthralled with our snails, so we decided to have a little fun. The kids each picked out their favorite snails, painted them, then raced them to the grass. It was quite fun, and we still occasionally see one of our painted friends crawling up our house (the ones that didn't try the "snail food!")

Winner by...an eyeball!

beauty in the eye of the beholder

I learned a lesson or two about unconditional love this week!! My great caterpillar experiment came to a head on Wednesday. For weeks we have watched and adored these little critters. I found the eggs on milkweed and have "babied" them since they were literally this ~ big!! This included providing new milkweed as the old became too chewed up, capturing them from near death experiences (like me dropping them in the water) and cleaning their jars (you wouldn't think caterpillars could poop much, but guess again!) The little fellas became part of the family and we would watch in wonder as they devoured their milkweed (did you know they eat in a very efficient, structured manner?)
Benjamin became especially enthralled. He even had to go show them off at preschool. He was proud of his new friends. So as they began to make their cocoons we waited in anticipation for them to come out. We thought their sewing themselves into the leaves was a little odd, but still couldn't wait for our butterflies to arrive. You can imagine my dismay (and disgust!) when I looked up from doing the dishes to see this in one of our jars:
Not just a moth, but one of the ugliest, freaky looking moths I've ever seen. I wasn't sure if I should even tell Benjamin. After my initial shock and rushing all of the jars outside (who wants THAT flying around their home!) I showed Benjamin our little babies. He had a confused look on his face, examined them closely, and exclaimed, "I gotta go show Ms. Gail!" (his preschool teacher.) Benjamin reminded me that even though they are weird, they are our little freak-of- natures. Suddenly I was excited again and wondering what kind of moths they are and what good they provide to society. I even made sure they were all accounted for before flying away. Thanks for reminding me, Benjamin, that there is beauty all around...even in bugs!

rite of passage

Jacob has waited all school year to get his name on the tooth chart. As the end of first-grade approached, he noticed he had a loose tooth. He spent the next 168 hours wiggling. If he wasn't playing soccer or sleeping, he had his hand in his mouth trying to make his deadline!! Well, needless to say, our little 2nd grader lost his first tooth on Sunday night, two days after school got out! Phil finally pulled it out and Jacob was so proud!

So we headed out for a walk, showing everyone we could think of! When we got home, after stating he would be waiting to put it under his pillow until he could show it to his grandparents, our little athlete dropped it in the grass!!! Realizing we would only be able to find it with Divine help, the boys prayed and Phil became the hero for the second time that night. Grandpa and Grandma, you better hurry and get here!!! I don't know how many times we'll be able to find the lost, lost tooth!