Month: January 2021

Today was a perfect Sunday. I was tired from an active day yesterday (including a heavy workout) and my fasting today, but Lily was more active and helped run the show. I thanked her at the end of the day for how restful today was and how helpful it was for me.

Lily and I really enjoyed church today. We have both been really falling in love with the messages and the people in the community of Christ.

I did a lot of blog catch-up today. Then I read Clarissa a book. Right after she finished, she fell asleep on my nap. While I was stuck there, I gave Lily a short neck massage and then I napped as well.

In preparation for getting puppies soon, Lily decided it’s time to get Ammon and Clarissa potty trained (Clarissa in the daytime at least). Clarissa is not in a diaper in this photo, so Lily put a towel around her to protect me and the blanket.

I loved napping with that sweet little girl on my lap cuddling with me!

After napping, we all walked around the block together to get sunshine and air.

Then we had Lily’s amazing leftover cabbage rolls and borscht and an incredible apple sharlotka cake that Lily made. I was over the moon about the cake and proclaimed my love for it multiple times.

After dinner we watched videos about Basset Hounds. They are soooo cute. We are so close to putting a deposit on one. More to come on that front! We also had a sweet chat with Georgia, and Lydia told her all about Basset Hounds.

Lydia is obsessed with the idea of getting a Basset Hound. On our walk today, she had an imaginary Basset Hound that she was walking (or trying to get to walk) the entire time. The imaginary Basset (Dumpling is the name I think) even went to bed with her, and Lily had to kiss him goodnight. Before going to bed, Lydia was so excited, she was bounding around on the couch cushions. Knowing how happy a Basset Hound would make Lydia is one more giant reason why Lily and I are leaning towards getting one.

I had a wonderful conversation with Dean Richardson after I put Clarissa down (Lily put the rest of the kids to bed), and then Lily and I had a wonderful time walking together.

One quick anecdote about Clarissa. Lily likes to do staring contests with her. They will get so close that their noses will touch and stare into each other’s eyes, until Clarissa declares, “you blinked!” The funny part is that Clarissa will have blinked multiple times prior to Lily blinking. She is so cute!

A couple months ago one of the kids (Clarissa or Ammon) was playing in the Carolla and turned on a light and left it on so the battery died. I’ve been meaning to recharge it since then. This morning, I finally jump-started it and drove around on some errands to charge it. Then I took the mini-van to Lub-Doc to get its emissions done and to get it registered. I was completely shocked to learn that I hadn’t registered it since February 2019, and so it was actually 11 months overdue. Yikes!! I was so over-due, Lube-Doc couldn’t help me, and the DMV was closed, so I need to call them first thing Monday morning. While the van’s emissions were getting done, I shopped in Smith’s with Mary and Clarissa. Mary was so helpful and helped to pick produce. Clarissa got a pink balloon that was clipped to her handles in the cart, and it continues to make her happy. After that errand, I then registered Georgia’s car. It was around 2:00 by the time all the car stuff was done. It was so nice to get it all taken care of!

Then I did a hard workout, got ready for the day and took the kids on three laps around the block (they watched a lot of TV today). Lily has been super tired today because of how hard she pushed it during the week and it was nice to see her catching up on rest a bit.

After the walk, we all ate pizza, and I set up Ammon’s coding robot and Mary’s coding art robot, which they both played with. In the evening, Lily had a wonderful Zoom conversation with her group of Thrive friends. That group is such a blessing, and I’m so happy that they all have each other. I think they all felt very uplifted talking together.

On a final note, Lily has put down $500 for a Burna-doodle dog. We are considering a second dog and Lily and Lydia have been researching dogs incessantly. Right now everyone is completely charmed with the idea of a Basset Hound, but we are also terrified of the stubbornness, and the stairs in our house could be a problem. But those ears and the droopy face!!!

Also, one quick anecdote about Clarissa. She is so cute and she has gotten very masterful at making her bed-time routine very protracted and difficult for her parents. The routine is basically this: 1) All out tantrum EVERY night at the announcement that it is bed-time (as if it is a shocking and unjust surprise that has never happened before), 2) Adult carries crying Clarissa (who is now very big, especially with length) to her changing table (which she has now grown out of), 3) Depending on Clarissa’s mood, she may or may not require that she chooses her pajamas and she may or may not take a while to decide. 4) Brush teeth 5) get water 6) have fluoride 7) Tell Clarissa to pick out her night time books 8) Tell Clarissa to pick out her night time books 9) tell Clarissa to pick out her night time books 10) tell Clarissa to pick out her night time books 11) Tell Clarissa she only gets 3 books, not the big stack she picked 12) negotiate with Clarissa 13) feel happy that she settled for 5 (I actually now just resign to telling her to pick 5) 14) read 5 books to Clarissa, and pray she’s not in a mood to stop and discuss various pages 15) Tell Clarissa it’s bed-time 16) Answer Clarissa’s second request for more water (Mary often helps here), 17) make sure Clarissa has the stuffed animals she wants (if she brings that up), 18) hug and kiss Clarissa 19) sing or hum on the way out (she recently made a stipulation that she wanted me to sing, but not with words, so humming made her happy) 20) tell her good-night and shut the door 21) sigh, both out of appreciation for the cuteness of that moment and the adorable girl I just got to spend 15 or minutes with, and out of relief at having control over my life again.

That was the routine, but recently Clarissa added a new part (she keeps adding things). Now, after I close the door or just as I’m closing it, she says, “wait! Can I ask you a question?” Or “Wait! Can I tell you something?” Then she proceeds to ramble on about something that mostly never makes sense and is pretty clearly an attempt to just extend out the time of someone giving her attention and not going to bed. After listening to her go on and having her eventually finish, and sometimes successfully cutting her short (she’s masterful at not allowing for pauses that would make a natural breaking point), I finally close the door, and then proceed with the parental sigh. But recently, she has added more iterations. After the question/telling me something, she now speaks up again a second, third or fourth time after I close the door, just to tell me something or asking a new question. It’s crazy!!! Tonight, she was doing this new most recent routine and I’d had enough (the part I didn’t tell you is if I refuse to go in, she will sit there and cry for who knows how long, I’ve only tested her to about 15 minutes). This time, on the fourth time in, or so, I stormed in with my best stern dad face, and said very coldly and matter-of-factually, something to the extent of “Clarissa, this is nuts, make it quick, and go to bed.” I then gave her the evil eye, which I don’t know if I’ve ever done before. I stared at her sternly and coldly. We looked at each other for a good 5 seconds, when she broke the silence jovially, and playfully saying, “dad, you are just so mad right now.” It was making her cheerful and happy to see me mad! I kept my cold stare, but inwardly I was laughing my head off. A big part of me just loves how little she takes seriously because I tend to take too much seriously. I love that girl! She did finally go to bed after that.

I had the most wonderful birthday today. First of all, it was very interesting because Qualtrics IPOed today, and gave all the employees the day off, encouraging us to do a day of service to give back to the world around us.

I had already planned to take the day off, and got a Qualtrics free pass to go skiing. I debated whether or not to ski, or if I would do service the whole day, but seeing as how I had already planned it, it was my birthday, and my friend was able to join me, I went ahead with plans.

Skiing was soooo wonderful. My equipment wasn’t working the best (right boot was too loose, which is no surprise because I have a right foot a half size smaller than my right), but the snow was amazing, and I was overall feeling pretty good despite a crushing three days of work prior.

I had a wonderful time talking with Joe and Tanner (another Qualtrics colleague). We talked about life on the lift and enjoyed going down the slopes together. I’m getting better, so people don’t have to wait for me quite so much anymore. I really appreciated the ability to reconnect with Joe who used to be on my team, and how I really enjoy as a good friend. He is a very good man.

Here is a photo of us (Joe is on the left)!

After skiing I went home, where I was about to walk into so so much love. Lily is the BEST with holidays. Whether it’s a birthday, St. Patrick’s day, Christmas, an election, or even just a season she wants to celebrate, she is the best at making occasions memorable, making everyone feel festive and happy, and on birthdays making the celebrated one feel truly celebrated.

Whether for my birthday or for one of the kids, I always plead with Lily to not do too much, to not overdo it, but her heart just bursts with festivity, and she LOVES to make people feel special.

And what did I learn today? I learned that all of my children have acquired Lily’s love of and aptitude for holiday’s and celebrating people. For days the kids had been putting up posters, pictures and a banner…

…but when I arrived from skiing, I found a Christmas-style pile of presents waiting for me, people in party-hats, with the kids out of their mind with excitement to give me all of their gifts and celebrate my birthday. Here is a video of me walking into the scene after cleaning up after skiing.

Here are pictures of the festivities:

I had fun patting people on the head to the music while people sang to me.

Even though Lily had trouble sleeping last night, she still watched the kids so I could ski, made me my annual request of borscht soup (and she nailed it again), and she made my cake request (my favorite) of America’s Test Kitchen’s triple chocolate moose cake. Everything was so so good. My family gave me such a wonderful birthday. I am so so so happy just remembering it.

Over dinner, people said things they liked about me, which was very touching. Lydia said she liked that I’m a kid inside. That comment may have inspired what happened at bed-time, which was me chasing the kids around upstairs and throwing them (making them fly) on the couch while we listened to songs about flying (John Denver Fly Away, Lenny Kravitz Fly Away, Sugar Ray I just wanna Fly). It was a fun sequal to what I played with the older girls a week or two ago when they tried to walk across the top of the couch while I pushed them onto the couch while we listened to songs about falling (Free Falling by Tom Petty, Falling by Alicia Keys etc). It’s easy to be a kid when I have such fun kids to play with!

To top it off, I visited Morgan and Jessie at their doorstep to drop off some Borscht. It was so nice to visit for a bit. They usually join us for Borscht, and Jessie especially appreciates the soup since she served her mission in Russia.

Many friends and family called, texted or sent me a facebook message. It was a very very happy day.

Today Lily let the kids help her make my birthday cake. It is one of my all-time favorite cakes. It is a triple-layer chocolate mouse cake from America’s Test Kitchen. She said all the kids lost interest in eating the leftover frosting after a minute or so, but Clarissa was still super into it 20 minutes later.

Clarissa has been very into Maleficent lately and I worked late today so to help give Lily a bit of a break in the evening, I let Clarissa watch Maleficent in my room while I worked.

Here is a cute clay creation one of the kids made.

Lydia was having a lot of fun today messing around with camera settings.

We went ice fishing again today, but the ice was very thin, so we fished from the dock.

After ice-fishing we put Ammon and Clarissa to bed, and Lily and I played Scrabble with Lydia and Mary. Lydia styled my hair between turns and she and Mary continued to play with camera settings it appears 🙂

Scrabble was so fun!

Lydia has the most wonderful 4th grade teacher, Erin Lamichhane, who always gives her neat projects. Here is a corn husk doll Lydia made for school, and I think she completely nailed it.

Here is a cute braid on Mary we got a picture of.

Congratulations, America, on surviving the last four years! I hope we can fully heal in the next four years. I hope we can see each other as people first and members of political parties last. It’s so hard to do, but so important if we want to preserve peace and democracy for our kids. I know I can do a lot more to really see the people around me instead of fear them, and one of my resolutions today is to focus on love rather than fear.

Today was a pretty normal day except for watching the inauguration, during which I teared up and Lydia kept exclaiming over how great Biden’s speech was. At one point she said, “Mom, I didn’t used to be able to appreciate a good speech, but now I can and I really love this one!” She looked so beautiful, is so smart, and is such a good-to-the-core human, and my heart just overflowed with pride in her intelligence and discernment today.

Mary memorized another times table and both girls had good practices and good music lessons. Ammon had a long play date with a neighbor and preschool friend, Casey, and Clarissa spent a lot of time singing me songs and telling me stories. She is so, so cute. I feel bad I didn’t get her stories recorded, but she’s on a roll so hopefully tomorrow.

Other than that, I went on a walk with Abe, did some laundry, made some meals, cleaned the kitchen, tidied the house, and googled puppies today. I hope to get a workout in before bed, so fingers crossed I can catch up on the blog before then.

Ammon is such a musical child, and he adores strong music. This morning he listened to the whole Wicked soundtrack before leaving his room, and before that he’s spent the last few months listening to Mozart’s Queen of the Night aria, Imagine Dragons, Fiddler on the Roof, and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker obsessively. Today he added Beethoven’s 5th symphony to his list of favorites. We read a book about it, and then I turned on Fantasia 2000…and he’s been humming the theme and calling himself “King Beethoven” ever since. He asked me to repeat the words, “Symphony number five by Beethoven” slowly so he can ask Alexa to play it for him. Obviously this fills me with joy and delight.

Clarissa likes strong female figures, and so lately her favorite movie is…Maleficent. Abe took a picture of her watching it in our bed (this pic was from Monday, actually. But I am too lazy to make it its own blog after accidentally putting it here.)

Also we got a security system installed today. It’s amazing and we love it so much already. Thanks to our friend Randy Blosil for getting us a great deal with Vivant! Next step, our bernadoodle deterrent, which I put a deposit on a couple days ago and expect sometime in the late summer or early fall of 2021. Yay puppy!