Nice comments about Hyrum

(reposted)
I mentioned Prince's poster with statements from his classmates about him. I'll post a picture of it on our old blog (for those who know where that is), but the comments are here:

T -- Prince loves to play with me outside.
Kt -- Prince likes to play in block corner and ride bikes.
Ay -- Prince likes to play with me outside.
D -- Prince likes to play in the block corner.
B -- Prince likes to sing songs at circle time.
Ax -- Prince likes letters.
Ki -- Prince likes boats.
I -- Prince likes outside time.
Z -- Prince is learning to use the pedals on a bike
J -- Prince likes to play with trains.
P -- Prince is my friend.

Is there anything you would like to say about your friends, Prince?

"A____y took a deep breath!" We are grateful that A_____y took a deep breath, Joy adds. She helped teach Prince how to take deep breaths to calm down.

His note to T____ was also sweet: "I like to sit next to T_____" T was his bus buddy, at least when they weren't hitting, pushing, and kicking each other as boys are wont to do.

Hyrum's Top Ten: May 11

Hyrum's top ten this month is amazingly easy:

BACKYARDIGANS

Between birthday and potty prizes, Hyrum has been stocking up on new music and loving it. Every day to school, the only music he wanted to listen to was his new Backyardigans music, and the only music of that he wanted was the soundtrack to the Mighty Knights episode. It's rock opera. ... Yeah. So we've been listening to a lot of rock opera lately. I can't say it's growing on me. It's the only set of his songs I refuse to listen to more than once a day. If he wanted his other Backyardigans songs, that would be no problem.

1 - Backyardigans Theme Song - 27
     We're Knights, That's Right
3 - A Challenge - 26
4 - Mario Theme song - 25    (not Backyardigans)
5 - Grabbing Goblin - 24
     Tweedily Dee
     Dragon Mountain
     Not an Egg
9 - A Pirate Says Arrrr - 19
10 - Prince of Egypt, horse race - 17  (not Backyardigans)


Hy happened to win a potty prize the day he discovered Prince of Egypt and he asked me for the music as Moses and Ramses are racing horses. It's not on the PoE soundtrack and it's not anywhere on the internet. Most of the music isn't on the net. We have the Tabernacle Choir singing Through Heaven's Eyes and a couple versions of When You Believe, but good luck trying to find anything else, on the soundtrack or not. I was not going to be able to find it anywhere.

Then we went to pray. Hy has been having a hard time praying lately, particularly in trying to come up with things to pray about. But he did come up with one request: Please bless Daddy to find the horses song.

So ... I hooked up my microphone to the computer speakers and recorded the two minutes to a track for him. The next morning, I had one happy boy.

Mario Party is bringing back my sanity

Dealing with 3 year old demands, his no to many things, and general resistance to discipline have really sent me packing. I have been searching for something to get his attention and persuade him to be kind, stop yelling and stopping hitting an kicking things. When discipline lasts for more than 3/4ths of the day you know something has definitely broken down. I don't like discipline and definitely not the kind that makes us all grumpy all day long.

So...... how to help Hyrum stay out of timeout. My first attempt at making Mario Party DS (his new birthday game) the prize for no timeouts failed miserably. There were not enough chances for success. This failed attempt went as follows. Mommy says, "Hyrum if you do not get anymore timeouts until _____ time of day then you can play some Mario Party DS." Hyrum was really excited and really wanted to play, so it was not the motivation that failed. It was the fact that he only had one chance to succeed. Within 15 minutes he was in timeout and had lost the opportunity to play the DS and was even more miserable about loosing the prize than being in timeout. But mommy doesn't lie, so there was no going back on the deal, and all the build up of the deal had deflated in 15 minutes, no more chance no more motivation.

I thought and prayed about it some more feeling that there had to be another way. I came up with a DS chart with 5 spaces for Xs. We drew a picture of the DS and I explained that every time he earned an X he would be closer to getting time on the DS with mommy. He has a chance every hour to get an X. If he doesn't go to timeout once in a whole hour then he gets to draw the X (plan B would be to shorten the time for each X if we could not achieve success). It took a few explanations of what he needed to do and what he would get for him to begin to understand and get excited about it.

So, our first afternoon (yesterday), I felt like was a success. Hyrum earned two Xs which means we had two beautiful hours without timeouts and we were all happier too. I am perfectly willing to start the hour time all over after a timeout has happened, there just needs to be an hour before the next one. I remind him if he is starting to act up what will happen if he gets a timeout and it helps him remember often why he is going to choose to listen or be kind to me. Today he earned two more Xs, therefore with any luck he will earn the other one tomorrow and we will play the Mario Party DS game together for 10 minutes. Having some hours without timeouts has been so wonderful to me and sanity and the spirit are returning to our home. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's help.

Written by Joy

He has my eyes

One of the things I like about Hyrum is that he has my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I would like it if he had Joy's eyes too. But since I have an easier time acknowledging my son's good looks than I do in thinking there is anything worthy of approval in my own looks, seeing my eyes reflecting from his handsome face gives me a little hope for me too.

Unfortunately, with the eyes comes the pink. I wouldn't say I regularly had pink eye as a child, but it was a frequent enough visitor that I know it when I see it. Hy is having his first bout with it, thankfully nowhere near as severe as what I had a few weeks ago. Little water, little discharge, little staying home from church, little glad there's no school tomorrow for him to miss, very little sleep as he pops into the bedroom several times a night to ask Mommy for help... good times. He's started asking for me to wash his eyes. We got a system going briefly that he liked, and when I did it differently the next time he said, "Daddy, you're not doing it right." I explained a bit further what it is we need to do, got him on board, and now we're working together much happier. I so have to keep trying to convince him to not stick his fingers in my eyes, though.

He also has a mild fever (100.6).

Meanwhile, I think I'm slowly passing another kidney stone, so it's time to be on Vicodin while moving boxes, mowing lawns, and trying to proof-read my textbook for the last time before publishing. For once, I was just as happy to spend church today lying down on the couch with him.

I've never been able to keep him laying down for as long as we just managed. We took turns watching half an hour of Prince of Egypt and Backyardigans. Each time we returned to PoE, he asked to start over and "see the horses going down." After the intro, teenage Moses and Ramses race each other in two-horse chariots. They nearly get themselves killed several times as people get out of the way, they jump gaps, and scaffolding crashes down around them. They pause the horses briefly at a barricade which suddenly collapses and they ride their horses down a tidal wave of sand in a scene highly reminiscent of going down a tall roller coaster. Pretty fun, but not the point, so I said no.

As we went along, I explained some of the parts of Moses' story from the Bible to be a bit more accurate than the film. He asked some pretty tough questions about why God sent curses and he correctly remembered and linked up the Passover with the Sacrament (score!). I was pretty pleased.

He told me several times that the movie was scary, but we made it through. It wasn't too scary, I guess. He and I had tried watching it last year, but it was too scary then. (I should note, he chose it from among the options I gave him.)

Afterwards, I asked him what was the scariest part. Imagine my surprise when he answered -- not the darkness, not the plagues, not the deaths, not the scary music -- "The horses. They go down WHOOSH. They go fast. Why did they go so fast, Daddy? Why did the horses go faster?"

I then asked him what his favorite part was. "The horses."

You liked the horses?
"Yes. They go fast."

I think I'm going to have a very interesting conversation with my Lovely and Gracious when she gets home....

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Hy-guy also apparently needs glasses. The school's best guess is that he has about 20/100 vision. We took him to an eye doctor for children in the area who demonstrated that he can read the top line of the eye chart, but nothing lower. We'll have to wait until the pink eye gets cleared up, though, to give him further testing to see just what kind of glasses. Happily, children who need glasses are a medical condition, while adults who need glasses need a separate vision insurance, so our insurance will cover his glasses if not mine.

Growing Up: Hyrum got Busted

Oops, I think I misspelled the title. That should say, "Hyrum got bussed" and he couldn't be happier about it. In November as we met with the school board about Hy starting school, we had a discussion about whether he should ride the bus or if we would drive him to school. Joy wanted to drive him. She couldn't bear the thought of sending her little baby out on a bus. I was skeptical. "Dear, it's the winter," I said. "You know how much you don't want to drive in the snow. Some days, you are going to call me to walk home from work through the snow to get the car so I can drive him home. Is this really what you want to do?" She looked at me so plaintively that I knew she was sure. To Joy's credit, that scenario hasn't happened once, though I have occasionally driven him to school before work when the snow was bad. She drove Hy faithfully through the snow for months. Brave girl.

But now we're heading to Africa and Hyrum will be taking a shuttle to school (across the street from where I work). Joy is rather set against getting a car there. The reality of needing to put her boy on a bus out there led to a change of heart and she spoke with the school about getting him on a friendly bus here so they both can transition into it.

One week into the bussing, Hyrum loves it. He gets to sit next to his best friend, Tyler (when they aren't pushing and hitting each other) and he is happy and excited every day. The one thing he wants to report to us every day after school is whether or not Tyler said "Arrrr." The problem on our side is that the bus comes to our corner about 6:45, so we all need to wake up half an hour earlier to get him ready on time. We take turns getting him ready and then Joy greets him when he gets home. One day when I was working from home, though, I got to pick him up, which was a major surprise for him. Reward: one happy picture.
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A few weeks ago Hyrum got some belated birthday presents from one of his grandmothers  (our fault). It's hard to tell which he is most excited about: the Backyardigan plush, the MarioParty game for DS to replace the Super Mario game we've been borrowing from my brother for months and will need to return soon, or the Toy Story action figures and play mat. I had left for Nigeria the day after Hyrum's gifts arrived, so he only had one chance to play his DS game before I spirited my toy away. While I was in Africa, the number one thing Hyrum talked about was me coming home and playing the DS game.

Despite that, it was pretty clear who the big winners were: the Backyardigans. Hyrum brought them into his room, set them out in his bed in order (above) and then took Mario, Luigi, and Peach out of his bed and set them on the dresser. We hadn't told him to. He just decided that he couldn't have both and he wanted his back yard friends. Instead of Mario and Luigi or Mario and Peach, Pablo and Tyrone accompanied him to school (until we switched to the bus, and okay, so one day he took Mario and Pablo).

Since then, we've convinced him he can have all of them together. So there are 10 in the bed until the little one says Roll over, Roll over....
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I started reading a book of children's nursery rhymes to Hyrum. He continues to be very interested in poetry. Among his favorites in the book are "The Rainbow Fairies," "Winken, Blinken, and Nod," and "Mud." The amazing thing to me was the other night this week when we sat down to read Rainbow Fairies and he read along with me. I stopped reading and let him recite the vast majority of it without any help. Now when we read it, I'll point to each word as he 'reads' it, sometimes with help. It's a fairly long poem for him.

About two nights ago I asked if he was going to read Rainbow Fairies or if I should. He answered, "You read it. I don't read much yet."

Relatedly, as he got in his pajamas today I was going to help him. He stopped me and said, "I'll do it, Dad. I'm good at that."

What is your daddy like?

I gave Hyrum and M the same lesson for family home evening and for home teaching. As part of that, I drew an implicit analogy between their fathers and our Heavenly Father. I first asked a series of questions about their fathers I figured they could answer, then the same questions about God.

The answers I got were not quite what I expected.

Hyrum's:
What is faith? "In the Lord!"  [We had a short discussion about faith in Jesus]

Who is your daddy? [point at me]
Where does your daddy live? "At home."
What is your daddy like? Tell me about your daddy. "Daddy's home."  --- coming home from Nigeria was clearly a highlight of his life.
Mommy tried to help me: What does Daddy look like? "Sunday." --- Yes, I was in a white shirt still.

Who is God? "Jesus!"  [We had a short discussion about the Godhead]
Where does God live? "In Heaven."
What is God like? "He likes it when we pray to Him."



M's answers:
Who is your daddy? [point at her dad]
Where does your daddy live? [points at her heart.] He lives in your heart? [Flustered, she points at the floor.] He lives on the floor? [She whispers to Mommy that he lives here.] Yes, he lives here.
What is your daddy like? "Spicy food!" [We all bust out laughing.] "Daddy likes spicy food."

Who is God? "Jesus!"  [I'm beginning to see a pattern here. We all talk about it.]
Where does God live?  [points up] The ceiling? "He lives in the sky."
Her mother asks what that place in the sky is called. [ponders] "The Kingdom of Heaven."
What is God like? [points at her daddy] "All in white." [She then confers in a whisper with her mother that God is good and that He loves her.]

"Havana" Hyrum's Hat Trick

Hi there. Hy here having some haberdashery hijinx. I grabbed Daddy's hat and put my hat on top. This is always great fun. Then I grabbed Pop's hat and Mommy's and stacked them up. I AM the four-hat wonder!

Mwahahaha.

Oops! This is harder than it looks. Let me try again.

Almost got it...



Stay up there, you!

Ta-da!

Of course, Mommy knows how to do it best. She's cool like that.

Hyrum at Disneyworld

Thanks to Grandma Boo who had a camera to bring, we now have some pictures of Hyrum at DisneyWorld last month.



Grandma found Hyrum a new hat and he became Woody for the trip.

Sadly her camera didn't work too well (I'm guessing since I don't have any of the shots I took) when he met up with Buzz and Woody the first day. It was a little hilarious. There he was in his Woody pajamas from Disneyland and his brand new Woody hat. Woody knew what to expect and started walking to Hyrum with his arms outstretched.

Hyrum ran toward him with a happy scream ... and right past him. Woody kept wandering forward, wondering what had happened as Hy grabbed Buzz by the legs for a great big hug. Joy explained to Woody that he was always #2 in Hyrum's eyes ... which didn't go over well. I think I saw them fighting again afterwards (j/k). It was fun.

This was the first time, though, that Hyrum played at being Woody. Normally he is Buzz, Mom is Woody, and I'm Rex. But at Disney he was Woody, I got to be Buzz :), Mom is Jessie, with Pop as Bullseye (Woody's horse), and Grandma taking my duties as Rex.

The best part of that is that people (tourists and staff alike) would ask him constantly where Bullseye was. Well, Pop was talking care of Grandma Boo, so he answered, "He's at Boo's," which I'm sure sounded like "booze" to everyone else. But he knew where Bullseye was.

Enjoying Jungle Cruise.

Donald in Africa.

We decided unanimously that Africa has the best character breakfast just in terms of the breakfast. Not only do they have the staples at all the other buffets (Mickey waffles, eggs and bacon, pancakes, donuts, fruit, disappointing biscuits and gravy), they had African dishes as well.

Hyrum loving Pop.

Carousels were clearly one of the big winners this trip. He really liked going around and around on any ride that would let him.

Hyrum helped me capture the evil Zurg.

"*Gasp!* Zurg!" he says, pointing.

Hy officially was looking forward to meeting Mickey's friends plus Buzz and Woody. Even though Pooh's friends didn't feature in his schedule, he sure was happy to see them.

Speaking of going around and around, the one ride Hy asked for by name without seeing were the Tea Cups. I got them going SUPER fast. He clung to the side with one arm, the biggest, happiest smile on his face. "Then my hat fell," he says. Yes, his hat flew off, and he bonked his head a few times. This is him at the end of the ride, trying to get the world to stop spinning. He denied being dizzy.

This is Hyrum with Disney Magic Crayons. The Magic Crayons look different from the crayons we got everywhere else and they magically appeared one by one, sneaking among the others while he was trying to count how many crayons he had. This made counting difficult, but all the more fun.

Have a Cow

One of the little phrases Joy brought to our marriage was "Have a cow!" She'd say it constantly!

But I ruined it. I joked that our baby's first words would be "ha'cow." She stopped right then. Pretty sad, especially since "ha'cow" was such a sweet sounding phrase.

Last Sunday Joy had a conversation with Hyrum. He was flipping out, in need of nap time. Joy said, "You are having a cow."

"I'm a cow," he proudly announced. "Baa! Baa!"

For the rest of the drive, he kept telling us he WAS a cow, and then bleated. We couldn't help him moo, even though we gave several examples and we know he is perfectly capable of mooing. He thought he was hilarious.

Hyrum's Top Ten - Mar/Apr

1 - Hark All Ye Nations - 65
2 - "Happy Bear" Tapper - 60      I don't know its real name. That's the name I gave it back when
                                                         I listened to it as a kid.
3 - Maria Wedding March - 37
      I Seen Troubles - 37
5 - Super Mario Theme - 34
6 - Give a Little Whistle - 31
7 - Tarantara - 30
      A Musicological Journey Through the 12 Days of Christmas - 30
9 - I'll Make a Man Out of You - 27
10 - What Have We Learned Today (ukulele) - 23
11 - High on the Mountain Top - 22
        WALL-E First Date - 22

Number Associations

On Sunday, a conversation happened without provocation:
"Daddy, you are number 2. Pop and Boo are number 7."
Who are you, Hyrum?
"I am number 1."
Who is Mommy?
"Mommy is number 3."
Who is number 4?
"Althea."
Who is number 5?
"Brother F____."
Who is number 6?
"..... Pop is number 6 and Boo is number 7!"
I see.

I asked him later in the day who each of the numbers were. He moved Bro. F___ up to #5 and his daughter (Althea) to #4. We give them rides to church on Sunday and he was thinking about them when he made the first numbering system. He held to the numbers on Tuesday.

The fun part is when I ask him:
Who is number 8?
"I don't remember!" *face palm*


Another day this week he and Joy got out his number puzzle. He pulled out the numbers one by one and said
"#1 How we got the Book of Mormon.
#2 Lehi warns the people.
#3 Lehi Leaves Jerusalem...."

And so on through as many chapters of his Book of Mormon stories book as he could remember. Every day for Jesus Time we've been reading from one of his scripture stories book, and lately Joy added to that letting him play on the computer (!!!!) with a Book of Mormon stories CD that will read the stories to him and let him click on words. He particularly likes #14 Abinadi and King Noah and #20 Alma and Nehor.

Today when the father of King Lamoni "got angrier and drew his sword to kill Lamoni" Hyrum recognized the word pattern and said it was just like Nehor who "got angry and drew his sword.and killed Gideon." Wow. His favorite Nehor picture is attached. He makes a point of telling us which pictures and which pages in books are his favorite.



Joy wonders what it will be like when we introduce him to The Prisoner! ROFL.

Favorite Books

The last couple months Hy has been rediscovering books. Mostly it's Dr. Seuss, and mostly it's Bartholomew Cubbins. The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is a smash hit that he wanted us to read again and AGAIN. We asked him to please choose another book in between the 500 hats. It's been a lot of fun, mostly.

Yesterday I helped him discover a new favorite book. The Lesson by Carol Lynn Pearson. "He seemed to understand a lot of it too," Joy says. "He's talked to me about it several times today -- having problems and ... I didn't understand what he wanted to do about them, but he understood." In the fable, a boy named Robert goes to school and discovers math problems. The math problems are hard, but he is happy whenever he solves them. I suspect that the numbers in the beginning of the book are a large part of its draw. Then one day his teacher announces they will do story problems.

The first story problem is: If you have 3 cars and 1 truck and Joey comes and takes 2 cars and the truck, how many times should you hit Joey?

"And he identifies with that." He puzzles it out with Robert, and is pleased when Robert discovers the answer is no times. As the book goes on, Robert's problems become more and more difficult. Hyrum's interest in the book varies depending on my reactions to it. Whenever I start choking up or tearing because of one the problems, he gets very interested in the book. When I manage to go several pages without difficulty, he starts talking about something else.

... he heard his teacher say, "Robert, if your family moved to a small house in a big city and you had to leave behind two aquariums and one dog and your best friend..."
"Oh no!" interrupted Robert. "I don't want that problem. Give me a different problem!"
"But I can't," said the teacher. "This is your problem and you must solve it."...

At the end of each lesson, it reads, "and he moved up a grade." By the end of the book, I am feeling ever so much less like that is an accomplishment and more and more dread at the inexorable climb.

It's a wonderful, moving book that Joy introduced to our home. Hyrum asked for it again tonight, in addition to talking to Joy about it several times. We can highly recommend it.

So this is Hyrum's latest literary addiction.

A Matter of Priorities

Occasionally Hyrum does not want to follow the program. When he decides he'd rather play than pray or do something else religious, we figure it's important enough to talk to him about it. We try to help him see that "Jesus is more important than _______" Buzz, Woody, or blocks. And we'll quiz him on what is more important until he can give the right answers. By that point, he's usually willing to come around and willingly participate.

Yesterday, he was playing with his alphabet blocks, arranging them to form the alphabet like he'd seen in a book. Joy promised him that he could play with them again after quiet time. The normal schedule (an important thing for little Hy) goes: wake up, potty, snack, play. He looks forward to his snack very much because he gets chocolate cake. "And it reminds him of Backyardigans these days," Joy adds.

So yesterday Joy got him up from his nap and said it was time for snack. No no, he was quite insistent. It was time to play with alphabet blocks! "I told him, if you choose to play with the alphabet blocks, we won't be having snack because this is the time for snack. You can play with the blocks after snack if you want."

He responded, "Mommy, alphabet blocks are more important than snack!"

"What could I say?" Let the boy play with the blocks.

Hyrum Remembers: Aquarium

Hyrum's Aunt Emilee volunteers at the Mystic Aquarium in CT. We got to visit it when we visited them this week. As we were leaving, it seemed the only thing that had impressed our little one was the penny funnel (e.g. picture right, or video), but then again that was the last thing he had seen and the only thing that made him laugh heartily.

Today I asked him what he liked about the aquarium, now that we're a few days away. He remembers ... "Nemo Fish!" As I listed off other critters he saw, he responded most positively to the "Jellyfish" exhibit and the "starfish" that he got to touch. He also remembered pushing a lot of "buttons" and thought that was fun.

Here are more pictures of the aquarium than you can shake a fishstick at. I was impressed to discover "skunk clownfish" and the moon jellyfish that they took out on the space program. I touched a shark!

Conversations with a Toddler

"Mommy, feed me breakfast."
Hyrum, will you feed me breakfast?
"Mommy, feed ME breakfast."
Yes. I will feed you breakfast. Then will you feed me breakfast?
"No. You can make breakfast for yourself."
O-ho-ho! And when will you be able to make breakfast for yourself?
"... When I'm five. But I'm three."

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Today Hyrum spelled out "Toy Story Mania," "Buzz," "Woody," and "Rex" phonetically before running out of O's to do "Slinky Dog"

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Hy and Mommy played "The Book of Mormon Challenge" today, Hyrum winning handily both times. Even though he had won, he insisted Mommy also finish the game and make it to Heaven.

When Mommy landed on the square that says "You forgot to pray," she told Hyrum that they really had forgotten to pray. They set the board aside and prayed. Then Hyrum told Mommy she didn't have to lose a turn because now she had prayed.

Things Hyrum Remembers: Disney World

Hyrum's intention going into Disney World was to find characters. He wanted to see, in this order: Mickey, Buzz, WALL-E, and Pop and Boo (Grandpa and Grandma). WALL-E apparently lives at Tokyo. Between character breakfasts each day and finding Buzz and Woody together the first day, his character needs were met. He was excited to see anyone else along the way, but felt no need to visit any of them, unlike last trip. Joy interjects, "Except for Mary Poppins, who we saw and couldn't meet, but he wanted to. Hyrum really wanted to stop but we had to go on to a lunch reservation." He hadn't paid her much attention last time at Disneyland.

His regular refrain was "Let's go on more rides" - particularly after anything we went to that didn't impress as much... and after we got off the plane at home... and today again at the CT Mystic Aquarium.

His first ride was his clear favorite: Toy Story Midway Mania. He went on it 3 times and asked for it several more times in later days at the other parks. The other ride he asked for several times was Spaceship Earth (the Epcot ball). When he saw it, he stopped in his tracks, pointed, and said, "Daddy! It's Epcot!" He took a nap in it the first time we went through.

He also got used to eating at restaurants. "I want to go to restaurant and eat." Not that he ate anything they offered - he only barely sipped the milk - but he quickly learned that was where he got fed. (Actually, today he asked to go to a restaurant too.*) As we were waiting Friday evening for our last restaurant, he announced "I want to go to the dark restaurant with the cartoons." The Sci-Fi Diner that shows old scary B-movie trailers and a few outer space cartoons was memorable enough to make him want to go back. It was Joy's favorite restaurant when she was there last time, but she sees it with new eyes having brought a toddler there. "I still like it for me," she says, "I really like the atmosphere. Then I realized it really focuses on horror films...."

Hyrum is now big enough to go on water rides and we took him on the Animal Kingdom raft ride. We told him he was going to get wet. We gave him a special rain slicker. He still got wetter than anyone, which made his lower lip quiver. I asked at the end if the ride was fun. "Yes." Do you want to ride it again? "No." He reminded us of the ride today, talking about the kids in another raft who were screaming and that he didn't want to go on it again.

He randomly talked to us today about a hedge maze that Grandma Boo and Mommy showed him in Epcot.

He remembers watching the 30 minute musical play version of Finding Nemo. Joy sang a parody version of one of the songs and Hyrum sang the real words in response.

He hasn't talked about these yet, but we know he particularly enjoyed the Country Bear Jamboree (he clapped along regularly and in pretty good rhythm), the Tea Cups (asked for them by name before we got to the park and loved how dizzy I made him - boy, that was a blissful boy in the cup with me!), the line for Winnie the Pooh, and the trains around Germany. He did not enjoy Prince Caspian (dark and scary) or the Hall of Presidents (nap time!).

Hyrum demonstrated the ability to tell the difference between Disneyland and Disney World on t-shirts. "Pop, your shirt says Disneyland, not Disney World!"

* - Joy tells me that even before Disney, he asked to go to a restaurant. We go to one so rarely I'm not sure how that happened. It's probably because we went to one in March when Pop was in town for a night and took us to Applebee's. Joy told him that we couldn't because Pop wasn't there. He said, "No. Go to restaurant without Pop." Joy couldn't figure out where he was coming from either.

This kid is too cute

Steve and Emilee just gave Hyrum a belated birthday present. She told him to close his eyes and hold out his hands. When he opened his eyes, he saw a coloring/sticker book he was very excited about. Emie then told Joy to close her eyes and hold out her hands too. Emie had made a lovely baby quilt for Lavinia.

Then Hyrum told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands. Obedient, I heard him say, "Now, Emilee, you should give Daddy something."

Disney Magic

We got a surprise invitation last month to join my parents at DisneyWorld for a few days. AWESOME! We flew out Tuesday, spent Wed-Fri at the parks, and returned yesterday. Hyrum's first visit was a wonderful time, and well in keeping with the traditions of the Magic Grandma.

Grandma Boo got a lot of quality time with him, riding in her scooter around the parks. She would pause regularly along the way to point out something interesting to him and explain it all, from topiaries to Liberty Bell replicas to carvings and flowers. When a bit of puffy flower-seed floated by on the wind, she caught it and showed Hyrum the "Disney Magic" that had brought such a wondrous thing to them. To Grandma at Disney, the world is full of Disney Magic. It made the trip all the more enchanting for Hyrum.

Then I started getting into the act:

Friday night at dinner, Hyrum was playing with his crayons while we finished our meal. I asked Hyrum to count his crayons. There were 9. I asked him to count them again, just to be sure. While he was distracted, I added a crayon. He returned his attention to his crayons and discovered the new one. He pointed out to everyone that it looked different from the other crayons! Grandma told him it was Disney Magic. Disney Magic produced three more crayons over the next while as he counted and recounted and never came up with the same number twice. Those four crayons became "the magic crayons." He asked to color with the magic crayons on the flight home and was disappointed today at church that the crayons I offered to let him color on his church program weren't magical.

Friday night as we got ready to sleep at Disney for the last time, Hyrum mourned that there would be "no more Disney magic." Oh, Hyrum, you'll take a little Disney magic with you. You are full of Disney magic.

We've reaped at least two interesting bits of Disney magic already. Up until the trip, Hy has complained most bitterly about needing to "practice potty." He dislikes it more and more, making it less and less fruitful. He hasn't earned a potty sticker or prize in a long time. During one pit stop when he was putting up yet another fight, I got fed up and called him a baby. Big boys say "I need to pee" and go to the bathroom by themselves. Babies just pee and need their diapers changed all the time. I said something to the effect of "And we'll have to keep on doing this until you can learn to say 'I need to pee.'" Something about it clicked. He doesn't want to be a baby. He wants to be a big boy. All of a sudden, from one pit stop to the next, he is happy to go to the bathroom. "Yes, I need to pee!" he announces whenever we ask, even if he doesn't actually pee. Then after he pees, he tells us he's a big boy, NOT a baby. It's such a blessing. The hard part is that from the way he asks Mommy why she chooses to pee, it sounds like he thought I meant once he can say "I need to pee" he won't need to anymore.... Joy says, "For some reason, it seems like he wants it to be something he can choose. 'I don't want to poo.' I keep trying to explain it, but we haven't made any headway yet."

We're also still trying to teach Hyrum to walk. He never learned, really. He learned how to run. Running and walking are different skills, you see. The first day at Disney he ran around like his usual rambunctious self. The second day he kept up with us pretty well. I noticed on Friday that he was a) actually willing to hold my hand and b) walking a little bit behind me so that I was carrying him forward noticeably. When I slowed down, he slowed down to match. I asked if his feet hurt and he said no. Then on Saturday, he hobbled through the airport, slow as could be. I turned to Joy and said, "It's Disney Magic! He walks!" Alas, the Disney Magic has worn off and he was his usual cannonball self at church.

Who will we be?

For a moment walking out the door, I reveled in my geekdom and wondered who Hyrum will want to role play in the future and what roles he will ask of us.... Will I be Sam, Aragorn, or Gandalf to his Frodo? Han, Obi-wan, or 3P0 to his Luke? Which of the Justice League or the X-Men or Starfleet officers will we be? ... or should I be working on my rim shot instead?

Life Lessons:

The last few weeks we've been teaching Hyrum about the priesthood and priesthood keys and how he'll get the priesthood some day and good things like that. I got a small payoff from that yesterday.

You see, when Hy is not quite on our schedule, we'll start counting. We are very lucky to have a boy who responds quickly to numbers. 1 ... "Stop counting! Daddy don't count!" he cries as he runs to do our fiendish bidding. (You'd think we believed in corporeal punishment instead of asking him to sit still for 3 minutes or carrying him to the car instead of letting him walk.)

Being a three year old and the son of people who try to not make any rules they don't follow too, he decided it was his turn to start counting at Mommy. He doesn't like practicing potty or changing clothes by himself, so he calls for us to come visit. Yesterday he called from the bathroom, "Mommy! Come here! 1 2 3."

Daddy's eyes got very wide and Mommy, seeing that, realized what had just happened. She laughed, but very quietly so as not to encourage him. Daddy was less pleased and went in to have a Word.

I tried several ways of explaining the situation, but didn't seem to quite be getting through. Then I remembered the keys. "Son, you do not have the keys to discipline your mother." I also explained that God does, that He holds Mommy and Daddy accountable for how we act as parents, and that if He counts 1, 2, 3 we had better listen. That got his attention.

He understood.

He understood well enough to tell Mommy this morning that he doesn't count at us, but God does.