Like Father Like Son

Sam's swagger

I feel bad that I've taken so long to post a video of Sammy's great achievement.. In my defense I tried a long time ago but it wouldn't upload, so Katie helped me this time, and so you get to sample some fun narrative from her here...a little play-by-play of sorts. Well, Sam the man has been walking since around Christmas! Can you believe it? When people used to say that their baby walked at 9 months I had a hard time swallowing it, but Sam's physical prowess was clearly more than I had esteemed. And as you can see he has no problem swallowing anything, even unidentified objects off the floor. I post this video not to compare baby milestones, a practice I abhor, but to celebrate an achievement for little Samuel, since I love him a lot and I've been unbalanced by posting more stories about Miranda lately. And because he's so fun to watch strut around. Katie always says she hopes he walks like that forever. That is a fun mental image. Imagine him walking with his date into prom, or crossing a busy street during his lunch break. As long as he works in the old west it shouldn't be a problem.

It is a unique and beautiful grief: to be sad for yourself, and yet happy for yourself because you've been so greatly affected by someone for so much longer than you could have asked for...and to be so happy for the person with no trace of sadness.

I remember a couple of conferences ago Fernando and I were sitting by J.D. Hucks and his son Dallin. It was Dallin's first time attending conference. The last speaker was Jeffery R. Holland. He gave a powerful address called "Prophets, Seers, and Revelators" and when he was through, we all sang "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet." The Spirit moved us all to our feet through the whole song. It wasn't one of those times when other people are standing up so you do too, or when you stand because of propriety. We were truly moved from within, motivated by a surge of the Spirit testifying to us of the reality that God speaks to us through a Prophet today, and moved by our love for that man, Gordon B. Hinckley. I remember singing through my tears and looking over to see J.D. and Fernando doing the same. I feel very grateful to my Heavenly Father for the blessing of living my life with Gordon B. Hinckley at the helm of the Church. How can I ever know all of the ways his willingness to serve and be led has shaped my life?
This picture is the consolation.

The hair pet

It's come to this. I'm blogging about the hair pet. But I was reading Calli's blog about her son picking at everything and then I realized that I should probably preserve this strangity for posterity. Miranda, I know you are reading this and you are now a teenager and you are mortified, but you will thank me later when you have children with strangities of their own.

So, from nearly the start, while I was holding her Miranda liked to take the ends of my hair and tickle inside the teency little binky holes as she sucked into sleep. The reader Molly will attest and also has photographic evidence. So, her hair tickling, well, evolved is probably a good word. In sum, she hasn't given it up since, so to help her sleep without me, my mom (look in the dictionary under the word "genius" to find out more about my mom) took some of the sterilized non-synthetic hair we used to make Miranda's pocahontas wig in 2006 for Halloween, and sewed it onto what in it's previous life was a homesewn snake that you could load with bubble gum. The result: the hair pet. Miranda named it "my hair pet" the first day. In this picture it is posing as a tie. Whenever Papi sees it when we visit or he visits, he uses it as a tie just to get a reaction out of Miranda. It works.



The hair pet fulfills its purpose in the following way: Miranda holds it as she falls asleep, and uses the ends of the old pocahontas hair which is now the hair pet's beard to tickle her elbows, her feet, yes, I've even see her try to tickle her own eyeball before. She tickles her skin with the hair pet and she falls asleep. I imagine it's something like having your back scratched or your arm tickled by fingernails. Kind of a soothing tickle. I really have no idea if this is how the hair pet works for Miranda, but if I tell myself that it's like backscratching then I can label the behavior more near normal.

I have to say that, as pets go, it's not a bad one. The hair pet holds still while I clean it with shampoo and soap. It even lies still over the shower rod to dry. (Try getting YOUR pet to do that!) It doesn't eat much and it is easily portable. I haven't tried, but I think it could even fly carry-on. It gets plenty of love from its owner, and it's only lost one eye. So, I think we've provided a good home for the hair pet. I just hope it doesn't follow my daughter to kindergarten.

virtual sticky note to self

Each child will require 1&1/2+ additional hours of prep time for an event or outing.
That is all.

"The Cook" better known as "The Kook"

Lately Miranda has been into cooking. But only at the real stove, of course. What do I think she is, a 2 year old who should use a play kitchen set?! Insulting. She likes to be Ratatoullie and I am Linguini. She says, "Can I help you coook?" like that with a very long O. I think she thinks it is a British accent...coook almost rhymes with puke. She adds pretend ingredients, wafts the scent to her nose to see what is still lacking, helps me stir, and eyes the burners, longing to sneak a forbidden touch.

She does quite well, actually, and for a moment I honestly contemplated teaching her to make a few simple recipes. Then she actually did touch a burner which, phew, was only hot enough to scare her a little. Lesson learned. Once again, I can take no parenting credit for teaching her life skills.

We made homemade macaroni and cheese one day. A first for me, and it showed. Luckily she never had macaroni and cheese made by a true talent, say Kraft for example, so she didn't realize mine stunk. Fernando realized it, sadly. His distaste was very polite. Although at times like that I would actually appreciate him spewing pieces of soggy macaroni into the far reaches of the kitchen and storming into the basement so at least the moment would have some cinematic drama to it. As it was the two of us choked down what was not only not good but not good for us. Stop the cruelty. The kids actually both ate it. So, likely, I'll make it again. I think I might actually be going insane because I'm laughing at this while I'm typing.

Last night my mom gave Miranda some biscuit dough from one of those pop-n-serve cans, and she rolled it and rolled it for more than a half-hour and made us some gooseberry pie. Of course, being Sneezy I had a hard time enjoying it between the sniffles. The only person to sample the finery besides Snow White herself was Dopey. Clearly, the name fit in this case.

Since I have no picture of Chef Miranda, I substituted this picture borrowed from the files of Katie Belnap of an Asian girl. If you blur your eyes it looks a bit like Miranda.

Breakfast guests

Does it ever get lonely here, you may ask? Just Sharon, Samuel, Miranda and her multiple personalities day after day...The three of us waiting for Fernando to appear at dinnertime like a limey sprout cracking through the crusted frost. Well, you don't need to worry about us anymore. We have company.

Every day for breakfast we are joined by the cast of Cinderella, and, I think, Cinderella 3. Two princes, four Cinderellas (rags, ball gown, and wedding dresses--two styles), and multiple everyone else except mice and stepmother. Luckily they don't eat much. Here they are enjoying a blueberry bagel with cream cheese.

A close up of the feasting

Drezella (sp?) gets to sit on a real person's chair because she is the only one who folds her arms for the prayer (Miranda's rules, not mine).

Miranda is very glad for the company.

What does The Sam think of all this?

Get used to it buddy. You're stuck at home with two women who frequently refuse to deal with reality.

Some pictures while we wait

Well, because I have, for the moment only, been defeated by video upload, here are some pictures of Christmas. Mami Betty knitted the pink dress and hat for Mimi, and Sam's favorite gift was the Go Diego ball pit, of course. If only Santa had found one Fernando's size...