Favorite stops with the Averys

The construction worker -- RyGuy and those boots are his very own.

The LifeFlight pilot Seany.


The rhino was attacked!

And the red panda, he really is that darling.

Easter Fun

A delighted Seany with his Easter Egg Hunt loot!

4 bunnies -- Seany, Alex, Andrew, and RyGuy.

Their Easter loot!


Back row: Alex, Papa, Carolyn, Andrew, and Nona
Front row: RyGuy and Seany

Webelos

Alex got his colors!

Guess what I am, by Alex

Have you got it yet?

A Blue Bird, by Andrew

The greatest kinder-painting ever. Andrew's artwork tends to make me happy.

Utahnizing the chicklets

After 7 blessed years living among the Utahns, we made the decision to Utahnize the chicklets. We want them to feel that they truly fit in amongst those with the most unusual names in the land.

Alex: 10 years old, christened Alexander David.
Utahnized: Alixter

Andrew: 6 years old, christened: Andrew James.
Utahnized: Andrewski. Andrewski finds the more acceptable version highly problematic. Actually preferring having a quote-unquote 'real' name.

Sean: 4 years old, member of 'the twix's should be enough to be unique as part of twix and nicknamed "Seany." Alas no, see Utahnized name for further clarification.
Utahnized: Seanathon. Curious coincidence, name father calls Seany in moments of tease.

Ryan: 4 years old, member 2 of 'the twix's thanks to benefit of birth.
Utahnized: Rylander. Actually, a far more appro-pro name than simple Ry (dash) an. Rylander imagines a more passionate, disgruntled, stubborn type person. A person more apt to say fill a soda can with hot cocoa in place of doing coloring the tiger preschool homework.

Five

Seany announced showing all his fingers, "Mom, I want to be 5! Not 4."

"Well, I've got good news for ya. Someday, you'll be 5."

"Yeah, Mom. Someday."

Chairs

RyGuy knew he was headed for trouble. He made a decision to stop the naughtiness in its tracks and find something else to do.

"MOMMY! Wook at me. I'm cleaning your chairs."

I replied, "Thanks, bud, that's awesome."

"Yeah, Mom I real awesome."

Seany jumped to attention, "MOMMY! I want to clean chairs too."

RyGuy, "Ah. Ok. Sean first you wipe off all the crumbs. Then you rub the towel. (pause) Hmmm. No Sean, first you wipe off the crumbs with your HAND not the towel!" (giggles commenced.)

Kindness

An incident has had my mind churning with thoughts of kindness. It is so easy for people to be unkind, to laugh at others, to create an environment of spite.

Sometimes, it is hard be kind, to be brave, to be respectful. Sometimes being kind feels akin to not being popular. But if cruelty equals popularity, I for one chose being picked last or perhaps not at all. The biggest bully is not popular, that person is not well liked, that person just has weak followers who don't want to be the next target.

I try to not feed into that gossip, that malice, and I hope, I think I usually avoid getting sucked into that vortex. The woman that I want to be and the mother I want the chicklets to see me as is kind, loving, well mannered and though not perfect (despite my best efforts :D) always tries to be a better version of myself.

I hope this is the lesson that the chicklets learn and that in time, they understand. Alex describes said lessons complimentary of me saying, "My mom is always kind, even when it doesn't matter."

Quote I'd like to remember

I read a lot of books. I'll get back to blogging on the other blog about them v. soon.

This is an excellent quote that I thinks illustrates how I feel about our life. It's from the Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, in the fourth book of Ember, The Diamond of Darkhold. The Ember books by the way, I highly recommend to the preteen crowd, they are excellent stories.

"You know, son, I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always misfortunes we can't control lurking out at the edges -- storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life, and I think we have one here."

Visiting

Can't wait for Easter! My mom, dad, and sister will all be here. The entire Avery family under one roof!

Store

RyGuy:

"Mommy. My butt has a STORE on it. It is so STORE, I am going to go put my butt medicine on it."

(full minute pause while he disappeared)

"Wow Mommy! My butt isn't STORE at all, anymore!

Monster

After 3 hours spent correcting behavior, I had it.

RyGuy: "MOMMY! I WANNA BE A MONSTER!"

Mommy said under her breath, "Ry. You already are a monster."

RyGuy's Primary Children's Day

His morning started out with a train ride. Quickly followed by his sedative, he spent the rest of the morning being messed with or in his hospital wagon.

At one point in the afternoon, someone had the BRILLIANT idea of letting the little guys make masks to wear for the messing-withs. Above Ry appears to be creating his mask, when he actually decided he'd over stickered it. Below Ry is modeling the mask he wore for the remaining specialists visits.

Seany's surgery day

A toy room to himself for 10 minutes. And walk down the hall before heading in the wagon to his doom...

Mommy love

A snapshot of Ry's life to remember, the week he wanted to be just like me:

At Costco, I said to the store in general, "Oh, cute. Look at the little pink dress." (Easter has arrived.)

RyGuy, " Mommy, I want a pink dress. I want to be just like you."

At Kohl's, shopping for a new purse, "Mommy! Mommy! Look at me! I have a purse just like yours." (He even swung it across himself the way I wear mine.)

After we got home from shopping, I changed into jammies. Comfort first. Ry disappeared and reappeared with a set of jammies and pronounced, "Mom, I got my jammies too!"

(It happened last year too. Right after the ordeal that is his clinic day.)

Coyotes

"Mommy. I have to tell you something. I don't wanna move to Suttern California."

"Why, it's lovely, beaches, mountains, Disneyland?"

"I don't care about that. There are coyotes there that are looking at more than small pets for their dinner," Andrew confided.

"What? Where did you hear this?"

"Animal Planet. Children, Mommy. The guy who does the scary animals stories meant children."

Reading

Last night, Alex needed to read for 25 minutes. After several minutes of listening to him play with Andrew, hide under a blanket, and generally not read.

I made the request, "Alex, how about you take out the garbages?"

"I thought I was supposed to be reading?" came his reply.

Half

Mark brought home 4 designer cupcakes for my pleasure. He's got a source. I've got no complaints.

2, cream cheese frosted carrot cake
2, cherry frosted chocolate

Say it with me, "Yumm! O!"

He told the chicklets these were a no touchie item, they got otter pops and were happy about it.

This morning, Andrew, Seany, and RyGuy were staring at my last cream cheese covered carrot cupcake deliciousness.

Andrew suggested, "Mommy you could just let us have it for snack after dinner."

Ry threw in his two cents, "Mommy! Mommy! (with hands of much flourish) I know! You can cut. it. in. half."

Valentine's Card

While shopping for Uncle Steve's Valentine card last week, Alex and I had it down to a couple real winners. Andrew had the deciding vote.

"Ok Andrew, this one has a dog and he's saying what word sound it out, M-E-O-W!" Alex prompted.

Andrew starting giggling. He quickly chose that card, walked over to the cosmetics counter to share the joke. "You have to see this card. This is a funny card, because it's a dog and look what he's saying, 'Meow!' Haaaa haaaa Haaaa...." Tinkling giggles followed.

Andrew loves being able to read.