Kid and event updates

There are a number of things I should write about. For St. Patrick's Day, we did about the same thing as last year. The "leprechauns" left stuff on our porch again in the morning. The night before I bought a card and green foods (or at least foods in green packages) like Apple Jacks, limeade, pickles (they love them), Fruit Roll-ups, etc. and put them in a green bag. We had green German Pancakes for dinner. Tori had a fun preschool party, but poor Eli had no school (he's back on track next week) so he was pretty sad. I had told him that sometimes people wore a green shirt under another shirt and then if someone pinched them, the rule was that they could show them the green and pinch them back ten times. Is that a real rule, or just something kids I knew did? Anyway, he would have liked to try it all out. In preschool, Tori and her friends used Lucky Charms as bait, and followed some little footprints to trap a leprechaun. He then left them chocolate gold coins.

Tori and Eli are taking swimming lessons for a couple of weeks. They have absolutely loved it. Their cousin, Daniel, is a great high school swimmer, and I would love it if my kids swam competetively at some point. What a great sport! Eli needed something to do while he was off track, but it ended up being a blessing for another reason. Eli has multiple fears right now, and one of them has been a fear of water on his face or in his ears. When I washed his hair, he would lie down with his head propped up on a bath toy, and I would gently pour water from my cupped hand onto his hair - but only his hair. Then he would clean his face with a washcloth. But once he started swimming lessons, he proudly announced that he wasn't worried about water anymore, and I just dump pitchers of water on him now like I do the others. It probably sounds small, but I was really happy to see the end of a phobia.

The other success we've had with him was even bigger. For a while, he has been scared to go into a room by himself, including the bathroom. I read online about child anxieties, and everything said that if the anxiety interfered with normal family functioning, he/she should see a child therapist. But I thought that some of the strategies the therapists apparently use could be replicated. And strangely enough, the one that worked was the old chart with stickers. If Eli went a whole day going to the bathroom and into rooms by himself as needed, he got a sticker. If he could do it for ten days, he got to pick out a Bionicle (Lego robot thing) at the store. And he did it! Once he got the prize, I assumed that he would want to start over earning another prize, but he just seems to be really proud of himself, and never mentioned it. He is still scared - he will sometimes come give me a hug before he goes, like he's gearing up. And sometimes he'll call to me while he's in there, just to make sure I'm around. Sweet boy. I'm very proud of him.

Jonah is very funny in the car. He'll demand certain songs from the Primary CD and then he'll call out, "Can't hear!" if it doesn't seem loud enough to him. A couple of times, I've forgotten to strap Jonah or Tori, so I've had to quickly pull over. So now sometimes, even if he's well-strapped, he'll say, "Forgot a strap me!" Sometimes he'll ask, "What's this car?" as we pass somebody. I'm not sure what information he's wanting. Once early on, I asked if he was talking about our mini-van and he started saying, "Minnie van. Mickey van." The other two thought that was hilarious.

Tori wears her BYU cheerleading outfit, her leotard or her Violet (Incredibles) costume about 90% of the time. Everywhere. She has some cute mannerisms when she talks, like tilting her head to the side or closing her eyes as she concludes. A little while back she would say to me, "Do you know why I'm sometimes mean to Lacey (her little friend)? The devil makes me do it!" After I told them that Popeye might be a bit too violent, she started saying that watching Popeye made her mean. She's really not mean, but she's got a ready excuse if she ever is.