Celebration!

I have a working camera again!

It takes big pictures. Below the fold are the fist images my camera saw on its way in from the mailbox (eager, much, Derrill?) and my miserable boy suitably numbed by Backyardigans (More on that in another post)

Star Wars meets French Existentialism

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.

Looking in the Crystal Ball

There's a lot Joy and I still don't know about what is going to happen in the next few months, but for anyone interested, we do have some decisions made at least. So here's a rough timeline, if everything works out the way we think. It brings to mind the old line, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans." These should be worth a chuckle.

We hope to have heard back from any school still interested in me this week. Within the next couple weeks I will be flying out to visit Nigeria. We hope to have a final decision about where then or very shortly thereafter. So we'll stop being silent/coy/private in a few weeks.

Baby Lavinia arrives June 24 and we begin a frantic dash to get her passported and visad.

Early July we will move out of Ithaca and visit our families in California and Utah, blessing Lavinia in my parents' ward.

Late July or early August we leave for our grand, three year adventure.

I'm sorry we've been keeping rather quiet about things online. It's certainly not for lack of interest as we can find precious little else to talk about that is quite so engaging. Until a decision is made, though, we would rather not jinx anything. The places still on the table are each very interesting prospects that we are excited about and we'd love to tell you more ... soon. We just know we probably won't be in Ithaca for more than another 10 weeks.

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!

Success

I bought the bulbs 2.5 years ago. I planted them 1.5 years ago. They finally blossom to bid us farewell. Or one of them does anyway.